Antin Infrastructure Partners Acquires European Colocation Leader NorthC in Major Digital Infrastructure Deal
December 11, 2025
In a significant move within the European digital infrastructure sector, private equity firm Antin Infrastructure Partners has agreed to acquire NorthC Datacenters, a leading colocation provider in the Benelux and DACH regions. The transaction underscores the intense investor appetite for data center assets, which are viewed as critical backbone infrastructure for cloud computing and the burgeoning artificial intelligence economy.
The deal, announced this week, will see Antin acquire NorthC from its current owner, German asset manager DWS, and other minority shareholders. While financial terms were not officially disclosed, industry reports during the sale process suggested NorthC could be valued at up to €2 billion ($2.34 billion). The acquisition is being executed through Antin’s €10.2 billion Flagship Fund V and is anticipated to close in the first half of 2026.
NorthC, formed in 2019 from the merger of Dutch operators, has rapidly expanded from its Netherlands base. Through a series of acquisitions, including Netrics in Switzerland and IP Exchange in Germany, the company has built a portfolio of more than a dozen facilities in the Netherlands, eight in Germany, and four in Switzerland, with additional sites under development across these markets. It serves over 1,600 enterprise customers spanning cloud providers, financial institutions, and the public sector.
Antin’s leadership expressed strong confidence in the colocation sector's growth trajectory. “We have a strong conviction on the growth potential for colocation data centers, and NorthC is the leading operator in this space in Europe,” said Stéphane Ifker and Maximilian Lindner, managing partner and partner at Antin, respectively. They added that NorthC is “well positioned to accelerate its expansion and consolidate its leadership in a fast-growing and increasingly strategic segment of the digital infrastructure market.”
For DWS, which helped build NorthC over the past six years, the sale represents a successful exit. Harold D’Hauteville, partner of DWS Infrastructure, highlighted the “strong growth potential in the enterprise colocation sector, as essential infrastructure required to enable the digital transformation and AI.”
The acquisition marks a further consolidation of Antin’s footprint in digital infrastructure, following its previous purchase of UK-based Pulsant. Antin, which manages over €33 billion in assets, also holds significant investments in fiber networks across Europe and the United States. NorthC’s CEO, Alexandra Schless, noted that “Antin’s direct experience of colocation data centers and knowledge of the enterprise end-customer market will be strong assets to help us seize the many growth opportunities that lie ahead.”
The deal reflects a broader trend of institutional capital flowing into data centers, driven by the sector's resilient fundamentals and its pivotal role in supporting next-generation technologies. As enterprises continue to migrate workloads to hybrid and cloud environments and demand for AI-ready infrastructure surges, established regional platforms like NorthC have become highly attractive strategic assets for global investors.
Source: datacenterdynamics
