Shonfeld Engineering, which is owned by Yossi Schonfeld, has hired investment banker The Jefferies Group to handle negotiations to sell 20-30% of data center business Shonfeld Data Services (SDS) for $3.6 billion, sources tell Globes. Shonfeld is following in the footsteps of Azrieli Group (TASE: AZRG) and the Papouchado Serverfarm family, both of which sold stakes in their data center companies for a handsome profit.
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Shonfeld wants to retain control of the company while receiving between $700 million and $1 billion in cash.
Market sources believe that there are European infrastructure and telecom companies interested in buying the stake. Talks are currently taking place with companies in several European countries but no deadline has been set for any deal. Any deal is likely to reflect a multiple of 25 on SDS’s EBITDA.
SDS has five data centers including one under construction. The largest of these data centers is located in the Ligad industrial zone in Modi’in, which hosts cloud services for Google and Microsoft in Israel. The SDS Data Center is under construction in Beth Yehoshua which will host Google in the first phase.
Yossi Schonfeld did not respond to this report.
Just last week, Azreli Group sold its 32% stake in Compass Data Centers at the company’s valuation of $5.7 billion, which would provide it with an accounting gain of NIS 1.3 billion, before taxes. Last month, the Papouchado family, which owns Red Sea Real Estate, sold control of US data center company Serverfarm for $600 million.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 28, 2023.
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