KKR to invest $400m in telecom infrastructure firm OMS Group

Global investment firm, KKR, and OMS Group have entered definitive agreements for a $400 million investment in OMS Group. This represents KKR's latest digital infrastructure investment in Southeast Asia, emphasising its belief in the significance of digitalisation to the region's growing internet economy.

Established in 1988, OMS Group is a neutral provider of integrated solutions for subsea telecommunications cable services. The company has a long-standing mission history of more than three decades of delivering vital services to major subsea equipment providers, large-scale cloud service providers, and telecom companies, among others. Today, OMS Group is one of the largest independent operators in this sector, with a varied fleet including cable ships and cable barges, as well as cable landing stations serving the global telecommunications market.

KKR's investment equips OMS Group to accelerate its growth, expanding its fleet size and capacity, and investing in cable landing stations and subsea cable routes to satisfy the demand for comprehensive subsea cable services supporting fast-growing cross-border data transmission trends.

Projections Banerjea, Director, Infrastructure at KKR, expressed his delight at working with OMS Group to meet the rising demand for greater connectivity in Southeast Asia. The investment also creates strong connections with KKR's recent digital infrastructure investments and leverages long-term secular trends in the region such as increasing data consumption, growing enterprise cloud needs, government focus on digitalisation, and the booming digital economy.

Datuk Soon Foo Lim, Chairman of OMS Group, stated that OMS Group and KKR share a vision and an understanding of the vital data infrastructure that OMS Group builds and maintains for its clients. Ronnie Lim, Group CEO of OMS Group, reiterated the valuable economic contributions of OMS Group to communities, corporations, and nations globally by constructing and maintaining critical subsea data infrastructure.

Commenting on KKR's investment, Ronnie Lim, Group CEO, says, "KKR's investment in OMS Group underscores the value of OMS Group's capabilities, which provides immense economic value to communities, corporations, and countries around the world by constructing and maintaining critical subsea data infrastructure.

"Together with KKR's strong track record in supporting and investing in data infrastructure assets and its platform-building expertise, OMS Group is in a stronger position to support its clients to build and maintain greater global connectivity," he says.

KKR is making this investment primarily from its Asia infrastructure strategy. This transaction adds to KKR's track record of investing in digital infrastructure regionally and globally. Past KKR investments in Southeast Asia digital infrastructure have included the regional data center platform of Singtel, a leading Asian technology group headquartered in Singapore, and Pinnacle Towers, a digital infrastructure platform in Asia with a strong focus on the Philippines.

Globally, KKR's investments in digital infrastructure have included CyrusOne, a global leader in the development and operation of sustainable, scalable, high- availability and flexible data center solutions, and Global Technical Realty, a build-to-suit and roll-up acquisition data center platform in Europe.

The transaction is expected to be completed by Q1 of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions. Additional details of the transaction are not disclosed.