November 2023 - DIF Capital Partners

30 November 2023 | Toronto

DIF investee company Tonaquint acquires EdgeX Data Centers in Oklahoma City

Premier data centre solutions provider expands geographic footprint.

DIF Capital Partners’ (DIF) investee company Tonaquint Data Centers (Tonaquint) has acquired EdgeX Data Centers (EdgeX), adding a further site to its portfolio of data centres in the United States.

Tonaquint is a specialised data centre provider offering cloud, colocation, backup, disaster recovery and network-as-a-service solutions to mid-market organisations through its facilities in the Mountain West and Southwest regions of the United States.

This acquisition adds another data centre to Tonaquint’s existing platform in Boise, Idaho and St. George, Utah, and enables Tonaquint to extend its robust portfolio into the rapidly growing Oklahoma City market, and adjacent markets. Tonaquint was acquired by DIF in December 2022.

The EdgeX facility is a purpose-built Tier III data centre, comprising 65,000 square feet in total, including two 10,000 square foot data halls, situated on a highly secure 4-acre campus. The facility has the ability to deliver water-chilled cooling for high density workloads.

Tonaquint plans to commission a minimum of 2.5 MW of critical IT load, via a phased approach, in the first year of operations. With an expansion capability of up to 12MW, the EdgeX facility holds significant future upside.

Strategically located near Will Rogers World Airport, the EdgeX facility utilizes the same electrical grid that powers the airport and is designed to withstand tornado-force winds of up to 310 mph, positioning it to provide 100% uptime.

As part of the transaction, Terry Morrison, Co-Founder and CTO of EdgeX, will join Tonaquint as COO and CTO.

Willem Jansonius, Partner at DIF and Tonaquint board member said: “This acquisition is a great step towards further building out the Tonaquint platform and expanding into underserved markets. We welcome Terry Morrison to join the strong management team at Tonaquint. Data centres form an important part of DIF’s investment strategy. We believe the investment offers substantial opportunities for value enhancement in the coming years, combined with reliable cash flows from high-quality contracts.”

Matt Hamlin, CEO of Tonaquint said: “Working with the EdgeX team has been an absolute pleasure. This transaction will enable Tonaquint to accelerate its growth and expand the service offering to our clients.”

John Parsons, Co-Founder of EdgeX said: “We are thrilled to be able to bring EdgeX together with Tonaquint and are excited about continuing to work with them to extend the capabilities of the Tonaquint platform into the very vibrant Oklahoma City market.”

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an infrastructure fund manager with ca. EUR 16 billion of assets under management. DIF was founded in 2005 and has a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower-risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital infrastructure, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 225 professionals in 11 offices, DIF offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Tonaquint

Tonaquint was founded in 2008 in St. George, UT, and entered the Boise, ID, market in 2020 with the acquisition of Fiberpipe Data Centers, Inc. Tonaquint provides a comprehensive set of data center solutions to a diverse and growing client base in the technology, healthcare, financial services, and industrial sectors, in high growth and emerging markets. In December 2022, DIF Capital Partners acquired Tonaquint, to enable Tonaquint to continue its growth. To learn more and get connected, visit tonaquint.com.

About EdgeX

EdgeX was founded in 2021, after acquiring a facility originally built by Devon Energy. EdgeX provides resilient facilities for businesses with demanding uptime, scalable compute, storage, and content distribution requirements, across the financial services, digital content distribution, and insurance verticals. For more information, please visit https://edgexdc.com/about-us.

Press contacts:

DIF Capital Partners: press@dif.eu

Tonaquint: jsa_tonaquint@jsa.net

21 November 2023 | Schiphol

DIF Capital Partners to acquire a majority interest in Novar, leading Dutch developer of green energy systems

DIF Capital Partners (via its DIF Infrastructure VI fund) has signed an agreement to acquire 60% of Novar, the leading developer of large-scale sustainable energy systems in the Netherlands.

The transaction marks the start of a long-term collaboration to deliver sustainable and innovative renewable energy solutions. As part of the investment, DIF will provide growth capital to among others support the expansion of Novar’s utility-scale solar, rooftop solar and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) portfolio.

Headquartered in Groningen, Novar owns and operates 440MW of utility-scale solar PV, rooftop solar and BESS projects. It has a development project pipeline of more than 15GW. Novar is a front-runner in integrated energy solutions, currently developing the largest private grid project in the Netherlands, which will provide grid connection for several of its large-scale solar and BESS projects, as well as the first Dutch solar thermal and green hydrogen projects.

The company operates a fully integrated Independent Power Producer model, providing operation & maintenance, technical & commercial asset management and consultancy & flex services to its own portfolio and to third parties.

Gijs Voskuyl, Partner at DIF, said: “The investment in Novar presents an opportunity for DIF to support the Dutch solar energy market leader with a long track record of successfully delivering ground-mounted and rooftop projects. Its existing 440MW contracted portfolio offers a robust investment proposition and with the extensive pipeline in solar and storage projects, we can continue to invest in energy transition investment opportunities going forward. We’re looking forward to working with Novar’s management team to continue to jointly grow the company in the years ahead.”

Gerben Smit, CEO of Novar Holding, expressed his enthusiasm, stating, “Thanks to this strategic partnership, Novar has the opportunity to shape further growth, expand internationally and achieve the target of 4GW of operating capacity by 2030.”

DIF was advised by KPMG (financial advisor), McKinsey (commercial advisor), Arup (technical advisor) and NautaDutilh (legal advisor). Novar was advised by Voltiq (financial advisor), Eversheds Sutherland and Hogan Lovells (legal advisors).

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other approvals and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.

About Novar Holding:

Novar Holding, formerly Solarfields, was founded in 2014 and specializes in the development of large-scale sustainable energy systems. For more information, please visit www.novar.nl.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an infrastructure fund manager with ca. EUR 16 billion of assets under management. DIF was founded in 2005 and has a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower-risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital infrastructure, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 225 professionals in 11 offices, DIF offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu or follow us on LinkedIn.

Press contacts:

DIF Capital Partners: press@dif.eu

Novar: David de Jong, david.dejong@novar.nl, +31 6 27971111

20 November 2023 | Sydney

DIF Capital Partners achieves full tenor refinancing on Bay Village -Karratha Accommodation Project

DIF Capital Partners (via its DIF V fund) is pleased to announce that it has successfully refinanced the Bay Village – Karratha Accommodation Facility, securing full tenor financing for the remainder of the availability based ~12-year concession, eliminating refinancing risk and providing future certainty for global energy company Woodside.

The value accretive refinancing delivers outperformance to investors and consists of a full tenor, low-cost, fully hedged senior debt facility from lead underwriter MUFG, leveraging DIF’s strong local relationship and taking advantage of the asset’s robust operational performance.

Bay Village, located in Karratha, Western Australia, comprises a 604-bed fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) facility purpose-built to accommodate employees and contractors engaged in Woodside’s North-West Shelf and Pluto energy projects. The facility offers a range of amenities, including a gym, outdoor swimming pool, recreational spaces, dining areas, multi-use sports courts, extensive food offerings, and social initiatives to promote the health, wellbeing and comfort of its residents.

Bay Village plays a pivotal role in supporting and bolstering Woodside’s energy projects in Australia, aligning with the global energy transition, and supporting neighbouring nations in emission reduction efforts.

The successful refinancing underscores DIF’s value creation capability, ability to secure competitive financing for critical infrastructure projects and track record of providing substantial value to our investors.

DIF Capital Partners was advised by Tetris Capital, Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Advisian. MUFG was advised by Allens.

About DIF Capital Partners

DIF Capital Partners is an infrastructure fund manager with ca. EUR 16 billion of assets under management. DIF was founded in 2005 and has a leading position in managing mid-market investments, primarily in Europe, North America and Australia.

DIF follows two strategies: its traditional DIF funds invest in lower-risk mid-sized infrastructure projects and companies in the energy transition (incl. renewables) and utilities sector, as well as PPPs and concessions. The firm’s CIF funds invest in small to mid-sized companies that will thrive in the new economy. These companies are typically active in the digital infrastructure, energy transition and sustainable transportation sector.

With a team of over 225 professionals in 11 offices, DIF offers a unique market approach combining global presence with the benefits of strong local networks and investment capabilities. DIF is located in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Helsinki, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, New York, Paris, Santiago, Sydney and Toronto.

For more information, please visit www.dif.eu or follow us on LinkedIn.

Press contact: press@dif.eu