Alpha Wave, formerly Falcon Edge Capital, is looking to acquire Carlyle’s 24.04% stake in Nxtra Data, the data centre business of telecom company Bharti Airtel, for Rs 5,125 crore ($600 million), The Economic Times reported on Friday.
The deal values Nxtra Data at Rs 20,500 crore. Bharti Airtel owns a majority 75.96% stake in Nxtra Data.
The development comes weeks after Alpha Wave picked up a minority stake in India’s Haldiram Snacks, known for its popular fried snack ‘bhujia’.
If the deal materialises with Apha Wave, it would be its second transaction with Carlyle after co-investing in VLCC. Carlyle has been working with Bank of America since 2024 to sell its investment, the report said. In July 2020, it had bought the stake for Rs. 1,788 crore.
Investment talks in Nxtra Data come at a time of growing investor interest in the data centre space. According to telecom regulator TRAI, India’s data centre market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.4% and surpass $5 billion by 2025, driven by the country’s increasing emphasis on digital service delivery.
Earlier this month, Indian data centre provider Web Werks was acquired by its joint venture partner Iron Mountain, in one of the largest transactions in the country’s data centre industry.
The ET report also mentioned that Florida-based alternative asset manager DigitalBridge is also in the race to acquire Carlyle’s stake, though “a section of the people familiar with the discussions said ‘DigitalBridge is not involved in any way in the process'”.
