Antin Infrastructure Partners has agreed to acquire NorthC Datacenters, an enterprise colocation data centre platform in Northwest Europe, from DWS and other minority shareholders. Antin said the transaction will be executed through its Flagship Fund V and remains subject to regulatory approvals, with closing expected in the first half of 2026.
NorthC, which is based in Amsterdam, operates 25 colocation data centres across major metropolitan areas in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. The company has more than 140 MW of secured gross grid capacity from existing and greenfield sites intended to support future growth.
NorthC was formed in 2019 through the combination of two Dutch data centre operators and has expanded into Germany and Switzerland under CEO Alexandra Schless. Antin and DWS said the platform has delivered sustained organic growth supported by greenfield developments and bolt on acquisitions, including a recent acquisition of six data centres in Germany and the Netherlands.
The company serves more than 1,600 customers across cloud and IT service providers, carriers, the public sector and financial institutions, as well as industry, transport and the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Antin said NorthC is positioned to continue growing as demand for colocation services is supported by IT outsourcing, cloud adoption, increasing data sovereignty requirements and rising AI workloads.
Antin said the investment would be its sixth through the 10.2 billion euro Flagship Fund V, which targets sizeable investments in established infrastructure companies across Europe and North America across energy and environment, digital, transport and social sectors. Antin said it will invest alongside Schless and the NorthC management team.
Advisers on the transaction included Evercore and Torch Partners as financial advisers to NorthC, with Latham and Watkins as legal adviser. Antin was advised by Guggenheim Securities as financial adviser, with Clifford Chance and Simpson Thacher and Bartlett as legal advisers.
KEY QUOTES:
“We have a strong conviction on the growth potential for colocation data centres, and NorthC is the leading operator in this space in Europe. NorthC is well positioned to accelerate its expansion and consolidate its leadership in a fast-growing and increasingly strategic segment of the digital infrastructure market. We look forward to supporting Alexandra and the team to achieve the next phase of NorthC’s growth.”
Stéphane Ifker, Managing Partner, Antin Infrastructure Partners; Maximilian Lindner, Partner, Antin Infrastructure Partners
“We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to create and grow NorthC with its incredible management team over the past six years. NorthC’s consistent focus on providing high quality colocation services to its clients across the Benelux and DACH region has established the business as a regional leader. We see strong growth potential in the enterprise colocation sector, as essential infrastructure required to enable the digital transformation and AI. We have no doubt that the management will continue to scale the business to reach new heights under its new ownership in the years to come.”
Harold D’Hauteville, Partner, DWS Infrastructure
“We are grateful to DWS for its support over the past years, and are delighted to work alongside Antin to continue taking the company forward. Antin’s direct experience of colocation data centres and knowledge of the enterprise end-customer market will be strong assets to help us seize the many growth opportunities that lie ahead.”
Alexandra Schless, CEO, NorthC
