Old Mutual's AIIM wins tribunal approval for 50% of Centurion data centre

The Competition Tribunal has approved African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ acquisition of a 50% stake in Vantage’s JNB11 data centre in Centurion, clearing the way for the Old Mutual-owned fund to add a hyperscale facility to a telecommunications portfolio that already runs through two of the country’s fibre network operators.

As MyBroadband reported on 18 September, the approval is one of two moving parts. The same fund, AIIM, owns 100% of Octotel and holds 37% of MetroFibre, making it MetroFibre’s largest shareholder, and both companies have confirmed that a merger between them is under assessment.

What AIIM now holds

AIIM sits inside Old Mutual Alternative Investments, which is owned by Old Mutual Investment Group, which falls under Old Mutual itself, a company with a market capitalisation of R62,34 billion. The Competition Commission recommended approval of the JNB11 transaction earlier in September, and the Tribunal has now granted it.

The structure is worth knowing because it splits the building from the business. JNB11 is held by two Vantage entities, VDC JNB11 Opco and VDC JNB11 Propco. AIIM acquires shares in both, taking a stake in the property through Propco and in the operations through Opco. Attacq, Waterfall City’s largest developer and a partner in the Mall of Africa, keeps its 50% stake in the facility.

JNB11 was the first data centre the international hyperscaler Vantage built in South Africa. Construction began in 2021 as part of a planned R15 billion campus at Waterfall City, and the two-storey building was completed in 10 months, 10 days ahead of schedule. It was designed to carry 16MW of critical IT capacity across 12 000 square metres, and an 87 MWp SolarAfrica installation powers the campus.

Two fibre networks, one question

Octotel and MetroFibre have given near-identical statements about a possible combination. A MetroFibre spokesperson said the businesses are assessing potential opportunities to work together to enhance their service offerings and customer experience. Octotel’s chief executive, Trevor van Zyl, said the company is excited about the prospects and the potential benefits for its clients, while both firms said they remain focused on existing business plans and will keep investing in and expanding their networks.

The scale question is the one that matters locally. Vumatel and Openserve are the two largest fibre network operators in the country, and a combined Octotel and MetroFibre would be the most serious attempt yet to build a third of comparable reach. Octotel’s footprint is concentrated in the Western Cape, MetroFibre’s in Gauteng, and the two together would cover a wider slice of the country than either does alone.

Where the next customers are

MetroFibre’s direction has already shifted. Chief executive Jan-Jan Bezuidenhout said in July that the company has moved away from aggressive network expansion and is concentrating on saturating and strengthening areas around its existing network. He said the company is reviewing its build methodology in highly dense areas to better match the environment and customer demand, including fibre solutions for backrooms and multi-dwelling properties where there is a clear landlord and tenant relationship.

That is the part ordinary households will notice first. Fibre in South Africa has largely been laid where the returns were quickest, in suburbs with garden walls and single owners. Backroom rentals, flats and township streets have been harder to serve because a single line has to be split across several households and the person who pays is not always the person who owns the building. A merged operator with a stated interest in those models is a different proposition from a fourth competitor chasing the same suburban streets.

What the Tribunal decision does not settle

The data centre approval and the fibre merger are separate transactions, and only the first has been decided. The merger of Octotel and MetroFibre has not been notified to the competition authorities on the record available here, and no timetable has been given. Until it is, both companies continue to operate as they are.

What is now established is the shape of the portfolio. A single fund under one of South Africa’s largest insurers holds a controlling stake in one fibre network, the largest shareholding in another, and half of a hyperscale data centre campus in Centurion that counts Attacq as its partner. That is infrastructure ownership at a scale few players in this market can match, and it is being assembled quietly, deal by deal, through a fund rather than a listed telecoms company.

Source: MyBroadband, R62.34-billion South African company building a fibre giant to take on Vumatel and Openserve.