KKR, a leading global investment firm, will make a $1 billion equity capital commitment in the formation of Global Technical Realty (“GTR”), a build-to-suit and roll-up acquisition data center platform in Europe. The plan is to develop and build data centers for large technology companies across Europe.
Franek Sodzawiczny, a leading data center entrepreneur and executive, will lead the venture. Sodzawiczny is the former founder & CEO of Zenium Data Centers and co-founder & CDO of Sentrum.
GTR has partnered with Mercury Engineering, a leading European engineering contractor with deep experience in data center construction, to design and develop a data center product specifically catered to the needs of hyperscale cloud service providers.
“The data center market in Europe presents a unique opportunity to invest behind the secular trend of increased cloud services adoption and demand for data,” said Waldemar Szlezak, Managing Director of KKR. Andrew Peisch, Director of KKR, added, “The 25 years of industry experience that Franek brings to the table, alongside the rest of the management team, is impressive and exactly the kind of know-how we sought out to invest in the sector.”
GTR CEO and founder Franek Sodzawiczny said, “We are thrilled to have found an investor like KKR that shares our vision for the future of the data center market. KKR’s breadth of resources and tremendous expertise will allow GTR to fully participate in this growing market and provide a solid foundation for GTR’s future growth and success.”
