Northern Data AG (XETRA: NB2, ISIN: DE000A0SMU87), one of the world’s largest providers of high-performance computing (HPC) solutions, acquires the Kelvin Emtech Group (KE Group), headquartered in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) with offices in Toronto. The KE Group is a specialist with over 25 years of expertise and comprehensive know-how as well as extensive intellectual property in the design, construction, and operation of innovative data centers together with long established relationships with key counterparts. This additive experience and know-how is expected to significantly accelerate Northern Data’s existing strategy of expansion in Canada and across North America, thus enabling the Company to accelerate its growth considerably.
Founded in 1994, the KE Group provides services for blue-chip customers such as Canada’s largest telecommunications group Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE), the IT service provider CGI Inc. (NYSE: GIB), and the International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM). The KE Group will in the future focus on HPC expansion projects for Northern Data in North America. The team of more than 30 employees is headed by the Group President and CEO Denis Pelletier, who has around 30 years of experience as an engineer and manager and was responsible for the realization of projects with a volume of USD 1.4 billion at Alstom/GE Hydro, among others.
In the course of the recent sharp increase in demand for computing capacity, partly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the know-how and experience of the KE Group are crucial for Northern Data to simultaneously develop new locations. With the acquisition of the KE Group, Northern Data has gained one of the most important resources for the construction of new sites and can thus accelerate both simultaneous development and construction of sites in view of the urgent global demand for computing capacity.
Northern-Data-CEO Aroosh Thillainathan comments on the acquisition: “We have experienced an extreme growth momentum in recent weeks driven by the high demand for computing capacity and in particular for HPC solutions. In the wake of this growth, we are excited to acquire the Canadian KE Group. The know-how and intellectual property of the KE Group is not only a valuable addition to our expertise but also enables us to accelerate simultaneous development and the establishment of additional locations. Above all in its home market Canada, we see the acquisition as a basis to build up further locations for our high-performance computing solutions in the medium-term.”
Denis Pelletier, President, and CEO of KE Group adds: “We are very pleased to be part of Northern Data Group and to bring our experience and expertise in building and operating HPC data centers in the future. With its newest location in Texas, Northern Data is realizing an impressive project. It is a particular pleasure for us to now actively work side by side with the Northern Data team at other locations in North America.”
The acquisition of the entire KE Group will be carried out by means of a capital increase against contribution in kind through the issue of 83,333 shares, which are subject to a complete lock-up for a period of three years.
