KUALA LUMPUR (April 20): TIME dotCom Bhd (TDC) believes it is well-positioned for a rapid and tactical expansion of data centre facilities across primary and secondary cities in Asia after concluding the sale of stakes in its data centre companies to US digital infrastructure assets firm DigitalBridge Group, Inc.

In a statement on Thursday (April 20), TDC also said the partnership with DigitalBridge Group will focus on providing best-in-class services to multinationals, large enterprises, content providers, internet infrastructure providers and financial institutions.

The plans will centre on AIMS Group as the primary platform for expansion in the highly connected, ecosystem-centric data centre space, while making Malaysia a core hub and gateway for greater connectivity in the region, it added.

To recap, the strategic partnership was announced in November last year, where TDC was to divest partial stakes in AIMS Data Centre Holding Sdn Bhd (AIMS) and AIMS Data Centre (Thailand) Ltd (AIMS TH).

The deal entails the divestment by TDC of 49% of the ordinary shares and 100% of the irredeemable convertible preference shares in AIMS, as well as 21% of the ordinary shares in AIMS TH. 

As part of the strategic partnership, both AIMS and AIMS TH's business is being valued at an enterprise value of RM3.2 billion. This compares to its current book value of RM240 million and represents a significant gain since TDC first acquired them in 2012 for RM119 million.

Proceeds from the transaction of approximately RM2 billion will partly be used to pay a special dividend of up to RM1 billion to TDC’s shareholders, and the balance will be reinvested into the group to further grow shareholder value, TDC's stock exchange filing read.  

TDC chief executive officer Afzal Abdul Rahim believes that DigitalBridge’s global experience in other markets will serve as a critical accelerator in its plans for AIMS’ data centre business expansion.

DigitalBridge head of Asia Justin Chang said DigitalBridge is looking forward to partnering with TDC to create the leading edge and interconnection data centre platform in the region and both parties strongly believe that the combination of TDC, AIMS and DigitalBridge is extremely powerful and can rapidly accelerate the growth of the business.

TDC said customers can rest assured that there will be no changes to the products and services that they are subscribed to, while AIMS will still be headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and continue to be run by its current management team.

Shares in TDC closed down 14 sen or 2.5% to RM5.46, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM10.04 billion.