Kotak arm invests additional Rs 600 cr in Sify to expand data centre capacity

Mumbai: Kotak Alternate Asset Managers (Kotakalt) on Thursday announced an additional Rs 600 crore investment in Sify Technologies.

The investment by Kotak Data Center Fund into Sify Infinit Spaces (SISL), which takes the overall bet by Kotakalt to Rs 1,600 crore, has been deployed for expanding data centre capacity across India and investing in renewable energy, as per a statement.

With the current investment of Rs 600 crore, Kotakalt's total funding reached Rs 1,000 crore in Sify, according to a statement.

The current Rs 600 crore investment is in the form of compulsorily convertible debentures, which will be converted into equity based on the operational performance of SISL over a specified reference period, it said.

"This partnership gives us the needful equity to scale up our data centre footprint and realise our opportunities faster. Our intent is to build capacity in sync with customer demand, in the most modular design and by deploying the latest and most cost-effective technologies," Sify's executive director and group chief financial officer Vijay Kumar said.

Kotakalt's MD Srini Sriniwasan said data centres are a long-term opportunity in India given the "rich media consumption" and increasing data localisation requirements.