Helsinki, 2017-09-21 07:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
TAALERI PLC PRESS RELEASE 21 SEPTEMBER 2017
Taaleri and Pontos purchase majority of colocation company Ficolo
Major data center of 50 MEUR planned for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area
Financial house Taaleri and private equity and real estate investment company Pontos will develop a significant data center project in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area with a colocation company Ficolo. The future investment will amount to approximately MEUR 50. The investment will be made by Ficolo Ltd, of which Taaleri and Pontos has now acquired approximately 80 per cent in equal shares with MEUR 5.7. The operating management owns 20 per cent of Ficolo.
This will initiate an invitation to actors of building a future proof data center park concept together with global data center players and industrial internet companies with operator neutral wholesale approach.
The organic growth plan with Ficolo together with strong industrial and financial partners will create a strong Finnish partner and interesting value proposition for international investors, data center operators and cloud service providers with a unique data center park concept.
The data center planned for the Helsinki Metropolitan Area will have a volume of approximately 10 megawatts. Its services are intended for data operators and companies that need server room space for their own servers or server space for their cloud services. The investment is planned to start in early 2018. Ficolo’s current data center in Ulvila in the Western coast of Finland will also be expanded.
“The new data center will be built on Ficolo’s strong expertise and tried and tested service concept. The acquisition of Ficolo is the start of a larger project where we build data center capacity in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Our aim is to be a significant data center for Finnish and international customers. We will facilitate modern server room space and competitive server capacity for service operators,” says Pontos CEO Timo Kokkila .
Ficolo offers its customers all the service components required for the production of global cloud services from equipment facilities and connection to first-rate data security solutions, with cost-efficient wholesale pricing.
“This is a distinctly Finnish project, but we want both Finnish and international operators and companies to join. Instead of everyone building their own capacity, centralising to a new domestic data center brings synergy benefits for all operators and strengthens Finnish expertise,” says Ficolo Managing Director Seppo Ihalainen .
Finland is an ideal place for data centers thanks to its climate, energy supply and geographic stability, which reduces operating costs. Finland also offers an optimal location between Europe and Asia in terms of intercontinental data highways. The data center meets the criteria of global operators and ensures connections with international connection points in Asia, Europe and North America. The C-Lion 1 cable between Finland and Germany and the planned Arctic Connect route will ensure low latency and good connectivity for infrastructure, service and applications.
“The data center to be built will be a part of the industrial internet, which is a requirement for the development of extensive infrastructures in the future. One example are the data communications structures required by the traffic network. The data center will also be a significant producer of heat, which will be utilised in energy production. Heat production aligns well with Taaleri’s renewable energy strategy,” says Taaleri CEO Juhani Elomaa .
For Taaleri’s part, Taaleri intends to utilize the co-investment model where Taaleri invests capital with its customers.
Taaleri Plc
Pontos Ltd.
Ficolo Ltd.
Additional information:
Seppo Ihalainen, Managing Director, Ficolo Ltd, tel. +358 44 7744 300, seppo.ihalainen@ficolo.com Timo Kokkila, CEO, Pontos Ltd, tel. +358 10 239 6359, timo.kokkila@pontos.fi Pekka Samuelsson, Investment Director, Taaleri, tel. +358 50 523 5834, pekka.samuelsson@taaleri.com
Ficolo in brief
Ficolo is a colocation and cloud company specialising in Cloud Delivery services with a 8,500 sqm data center in Ulvila. The company is growing strongly, and its income this year is expected to double to approximately MEUR 6.0. Ficolo’s customers include almost 100 providers of SaaS services, cloud services, IT services and IoT services with tens of millions of users worldwide combined.
Pontos in brief
Pontos is a Finnish investment company which acts as an active owner with long-term perspective in several industries and regions. Pontos operates currently in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Portugal.
Taaleri in brief
Taaleri is a financial group whose parent company Taaleri Plc is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki's main market. The Taaleri Group comprises three business areas: Wealth Management, Financing, and Energy. Taaleri provides services to institutional investors, companies and private individuals. The Group’s operational subsidiaries are: Taaleri Wealth Management Ltd and its subsidiaries, Taaleri Private Equity Funds Ltd Group, Taaleri Investments Ltd Group, Taaleri Energia Oy and Garantia Insurance Company Ltd. In addition, Taaleri has associated companies Fellow Finance Plc, which offers peer-to-peer lending services, and Inderes Oy, which produces analyses and marketing information for investors.
At the end of June 2017, Taaleri had assets under management totalling EUR 5.3 billion and 4,300 wealth management customers. Taaleri Plc has over 3,200 shareholders. Taaleri's operations are supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority.
More information about our company and services:
www.taaleri.com www.fellowfinance.fi www.garantia.fi www.inderes.fi
Taneli Hassinen, Head of Communications and IR, tel. +358 40 504 3321, taneli.hassinen@taaleri.com
