KKR to pump $400 million into subsea cable firm

Investment firm KKR will drop $400 million onto infrastructure and subsea cable services firm OMS Group, which it is the parent of.

We’re told the investment will enable OMS to expand its fleet size and capabilities, invest in cable landing stations and subsea cable routes serving cross-border data transmission, and is specially in relation to the region of Southeast Asia.

KKR has recently pumped investment wedge into the region via the the regional data centre platform of Singtel – in which it agreed to pay $800 million for a 20% stake – and Pinnacle Towers, which has a strong focus on the Philippines.

“OMS Group has established itself as a market leader with a longstanding track record of success and growth in Southeast Asia,” said Projesh Banerjea, Director, Infrastructure at KKR. “As demand for greater connectivity across the region continues to grow, we are delighted to work closely with Datuk Lim, Mr Ronnie Lim, and the highly rated OMS Group team to meet this critical need.

“Our tailored solution for OMS Group also creates strong adjacencies with KKR’s recent digital infrastructure investments and builds on long-term secular tailwinds in the region, including increased data consumption, enterprise cloud needs, a focus on digitalization by governments, and a booming digital economy. We look forward to sharing our global network and infrastructure expertise to take OMS Group to its next stage of growth.”

Datuk Soon Foo Lim, OMS Group’s Chairman added: “OMS Group and KKR share the same vision and appreciation of the critical data infrastructure OMS Group builds and maintain for its clients. We look forward to working with Mr David Luboff, Mr Projesh Banerjea and the world-class KKR team in advancing OMS Group’s growth plans.”

KKR has a strong track record of splashing the cash on telco infrastructure. In 2021, it partnered with infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) to acquire data centre provider CyrusOne in deal worth $15 billion. In 2022 it acquired a $16 billion stake in Vodafone’s Vantage Towers unit, again in partnership with GIP. It is also currently the preferred bidder for Telecom Italia’s networks assets.

The OMS transaction is expected to be completed the first quarter of 2024.

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