Morgan Stanley Investment Management has entered into an exclusivity agreement to partner with Altice France to establish the first nationwide independent distributed colocation provider in France through the acquisition of a majority interest in UltraEdge, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions.
Currently a part of SFR S.A., a fully-owned subsidiary of Altice France, UltraEdge represents a portfolio of 257 data centers interconnected via SFR’s countrywide fiber network which will be carved out through a demerger of SFR’s data center operations, in order to establish the first nationwide independent distributed colocation provider in France. The passive infrastructure and equipment of the data centers will be transferred to UltraEdge with servers and active equipment retained at SFR. Through its distributed portfolio of facilities and proximity to end users, UltraEdge is expected to benefit from the increasing demand for next-generation ultra-low latency connectivity services.
“We believe the opportunity to create an independent and distributed edge colocation provider, benefiting from access to SFR’s nationwide fiber infrastructure in France, makes UltraEdge a very attractive investment for MSIP,” said Yacine Saidji, Managing Director and Co-Head of Europe for MSIP.
MSIP will partner with Altice France to continue upgrading the infrastructure and increasing the density of the portfolio, which will contribute towards establishing UltraEdge’s position as a leading provider in edge computing in France.
