Asterion notifies Competition Authority of purchase of Meo data centre in Covilhã
The company, which will enter Portugal through this operation via its subsidiary Mezan, will pay €120 million for Meo's infrastructure, which has gained relevance with the widespread use of AI.
Infrastructure investment company Asterion Industrial Partners has already notified the Competition Authority of the purchase of Altice’s data centre in Covilhã, for which it will pay €120 million. The operation was reported at the end of last November.
According to the notification published by the regulator in the national press on Tuesday, the merger involves Asterion, through its subsidiary Mezan, “an investment management company focused on investments in infrastructure in the European mid-market”. “Its strategy focuses mainly on the telecommunications, energy and public utility services and mobility sectors in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, France and the United Kingdom”, the announcement states.
Mezan thus intends to acquire “exclusive control” of Portugal Telecom Data Centre, controlled by Meo. This company “operates a hyperscale data centre located in Covilhã, which provides housing-related services, i.e., space in the data centre, power, cooling, interconnections and land”. “It can also support the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models across Europe, as well as low-latency AI inference from the Iberian Peninsula and latency-insensitive AI inference in the rest of Europe”, the announcement states.
According to a report by the Lusa news agency in November, the Covilhã data centre currently has 6.8 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity and a modular design that allows for significant expansion. The centre allows for the addition of up to 75 MW through new modules integrated into the existing campus and has the potential to reach approximately 175 MW on adjacent land that already has a guaranteed electricity supply.
If the acquisition does not meet with resistance from the AdC, Altice Portugal is expected to remain the main customer of the Covilhã centre under a long-term service contract, reinforcing a strategic alliance that provides continuity and visibility for both parties, Asterion said when it announced the acquisition.
