TIME partners with DigitalBridge to expand Business across Asia

TIME dotCom Berhad today announced it has partnered with affiliates of DigitalBridge Group, Inc. one of the world’s leading owners and operators of digital infrastructure assets, to accelerate the expansion of its AIMS Group (“AIMS”) data centre business across Asia.

The partnership between Time and DigitalBridge is premised on bringing together a unique combination of two entities with distinctly different backgrounds – a focused telecoms and data centre operator with assets across ASEAN, and a digital infrastructure investor that has enabled the growth of some of the most successful data centre and digital infrastructure companies around the world.

“We believe that DigitalBridge is the right partner as they are committed to building on AIMS’ heritage and capitalise on its strengths. We see this as a true partnership that will allow us to tap on their global experience in other markets,” said Afzal Abdul Rahim, Commander-in-Chief of Time.

Both parties envisage a rapid and tactical expansion of data centre facilities across primary and secondary cities in ASEAN and beyond with a focus on providing best-in-class services to multinationals, large enterprises, content providers, internet infrastructure providers and financial institutions. The plans will centre on AIMS as the primary platform for expansion, whilst making Malaysia a core hub and gateway for greater connectivity in the region.

“AIMS operates some of the most strategic data centre assets in the ASEAN region,” said Justin Chang, Managing Director and Head of Asia for DigitalBridge. “We are excited to have such a strong foundation to build a broader regional business focused on providing high quality interconnection and ecosystem facilities to our global customers. Time has an impressive track record of building connectivity linked businesses across the ASEAN region and is the ideal partner for this endeavour.”

As part of the strategic partnership, the overall AIMS business is being valued at an enterprise value of RM3.2 billion. This compares to its current book value of RM240 million and represents a significant gain since Time first acquired AIMS in 2012 for RM119 million.

The strategic partnership entails the immediate divestment by Time of 49% of the ordinary shares and 100% of the irredeemable convertible preference shares in AIMS Data Centre Holding Sdn Bhd, as well as 21% of the ordinary shares in AIMS Data Centre (Thailand) Limited. The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q2 2023, subject to certain conditions precedent (including Time shareholder approval) being satisfied.