Reliance to invest $122 mln in Brookfield JV for data center projects in India

BENGALURU, July 24 (Reuters) - Indias Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) said on Monday it would invest up to 10 billion Indian rupees ($122.24 million) in building data centres in the country along with Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure.

The announcement comes at a time when data centre capacity in India is expected to rise exponentially as more people go online.

Reliance will initially invest about 3.78 billion rupees in units of Mercury Holdings SG Pte, which is a joint venture (JV) between Brookfield Infrastructure and U.S.-based real estate investment trust Digital Realty.

The JV is currently building data centres in Chennai and Mumbai.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned company has committed to invest the remaining 6.22 billion rupees in equity and debt securities of the JVs units, when needed.

Reliance will hold a 33.33% stake in each of the Indian units of the JV and become an equal partner, it said, adding that the venture will be branded as Digital Connexion.

Indias data centres market is expected to grow 40% a year and draw $5 billion in investments by 2025 according to a report from investment bank Avendus Capital.

Indian data center space is also heating up with Reliances entry as Adani Enterprises (ADEL.NS) JV had already raised $213 million to fund under-construction data centres.

($1 = 81.8060 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Sethuraman NR in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Sriram Mani; Editing by Anil DSilva and Shweta Agarwal

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.