Abu Dhabi’s Khazna Data Centres, one of the industry's largest operators in the Middle East, will be expanding in Egypt and is considering acquisitions to boost its portfolio amid a shifting digital landscape, its chief executive said.
The new $250 million Egypt data centre, to be built at Maadi Technology Park in Cairo with an expected capacity of 25 megawatts of IT load, is aimed at addressing the region's underserved markets in terms of data capacity, Hassan Al Naqbi added.
“We realise that to become regional and global, we have to step outside the UAE,” Mr Al Naqbi said.
“It's inevitable … we're looking at emerging markets where we see the shift of data and cloud concentration going into those regions.
“We plan to do organic [growth] or greenfield [investments], but in some cases we might do activities in which we acquire some existing players and try to expand from them.”
Khazna — created when the former Etisalat Group and Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence company G42 merged their data centres in 2021 — is entering the Egyptian market with Cairo-based Benya Group.
“Egypt is sitting in a very good geographical location between Europe and the Middle East, sort of a gateway between East and West. A country like Egypt with a huge population has a lot of potential.”
The company is also in varying levels of discussions with a number of countries, he said.
Khazna is looking into three more markets in Mena — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Morocco — and greenfield investments are being planned with the “right partners”, Mr Al Naqbi said.
For entry into Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's biggest economy, talks are at a “high level” and a specific time frame will be announced once an agreement is finalised, he said.