AXA Investment Managers’ Real Assets (AXA IM) division today announced it has completed, the acquisition of a ¥22bn ($210m) data center in Tokyo, Japan. Specifically, the data center represents 2.6k server racks of power capacity and 215k sqft, making the facility one of Tokyo’s largest data centers. Furthermore, this transaction expands AXA IM’s global data center platform to over $1.2bn of investments.
Data Center Location in Tokyo
AXA IM’s new data center is located in Koto Ward, South Tokyo. Specifically, the asset is 4.5 miles from the city’s main financial district, Marunouchi and Otemachi. Furthermore, the facility is a 10-minute walk from the nearest metro station offering direct routes into Tokyo’s city center.
Indeed, this short distance to the central business district means that the data center can be used for both cloud services and networking purposes. Finally, the asset also benefits from its close proximity to an external power source.
AXA IM’s Tokyo data center acquisition offered the opportunity to purchase a large scale, high-quality and strategically located data center in a market suffering from a chronic lack of supply. Specifically, there are only two other data centers offering over 100k sqft of space in the district.
AXA IM’s Data Center Strategy
This transaction aligns with AXA IM’s strategy of investing in operational real estate assets underpinned by strong structural drivers. Specifically, themes including urbanization and e-commerce, are two secular trends which AXA IM is taking advantage of through this investment.
AXA IM is continuing to invest in the digital infrastructure sector. Indeed, AXA IM is seeing demand for data storage, in particular, which has been further exacerbated by the widespread adoption of remote working and expanding e-commerce penetration as a result of the global pandemic.
Equinix xScale Joint Venture in Japan
Equinix, the largest publicly-traded data center real estate investment trust (REIT) has also made recent investments in Japan. Specifically, in April 2020, Equinix entered into a $1.0bn+ joint venture with GIC. The joint venture will develop and operate hyperscale data centers in Asia-Pacific, starting with Japan.
Equinix’s joint venture comprises three initial facilities which, when fully built out, will provide 138 megawatts of power capacity. Specifically, these three facilities are all located in Japan, with two in Tokyo and one in Osaka.
