BlackRock and IFM Investors closed their joint acquisition of AirTrunk—operating under the Stack brand in Asia—for $25 billion, marking the largest infrastructure transaction in the region's history. The deal, confirmed by Bloomberg, gives the two firms control of over 1.4 gigawatts of operational and under-construction capacity across 11 facilities in Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, Osaka, and Hong Kong. AirTrunk's founders exit with a roughly 8x return on capital deployed since 2016. The transaction settles at a 22% premium to the last private valuation round in late 2023.
BlackRock takes a 60% stake through its Global Infrastructure Partners vehicle, while IFM's Infrastructure Fund holds the remaining 40%. The structure locks in a 12-year take-or-pay lease with hyperscalers across 92% of the portfolio, weighted toward AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The portfolio carries a blended contractual rent escalator of 3.8% annually, with power pass-throughs tied to local grid pricing. Stack's forward EBITDA sits near $1.1 billion, implying an entry multiple of roughly 23x—expensive by infrastructure standards, but in line with recent European data center trades where scarcity drives valuation.
The deal matters because it signals a structural shift in how institutional capital prices digital infrastructure in Asia. Data center operators in the region have historically traded at a 15-18x EBITDA range. This transaction resets the benchmark closer to 23x, driven by two factors: hyperscaler tenant quality and the physical scarcity of power-enabled sites in Tier 1 Asian metros. Singapore's moratorium on new data center builds remains in place through at least 2025, Tokyo's grid constraints limit incremental capacity to under 200 megawatts annually, and Hong Kong's land supply keeps development timelines above 36 months. BlackRock and IFM are not buying growth optionality—they are buying monopoly access to stranded power in cities where AI workload demand is rising 40% year-over-year but supply cannot follow.
The transaction also exposes a widening gap between public and private infrastructure valuations. Equinix, the closest public comp, trades at 18x forward EBITDA with a 3.2% dividend yield. AirTrunk's implied yield at entry sits near 4.8%, but the illiquidity premium no longer offsets the valuation stretch when tenant concentration risk is considered. Three hyperscalers account for 87% of Stack's revenue. If any one tenant reduces footprint by 20% at lease expiry—plausible if on-premise AI inference gains traction—cash flow could compress 12-15% before re-leasing. The structure assumes hyperscalers remain structurally short capacity in Asia through 2030. That assumption held through the last cycle. It may not hold through the next.
Operators should watch three follow-on events. First, whether BlackRock syndicates 10-15% of the equity to sovereign wealth funds in the next six months—typical for deals above $20 billion where concentration risk needs distribution. Second, whether IFM raises a dedicated digital infrastructure fund by Q2 2025 to warehouse similar assets, signaling this was a platform entry, not a one-off. Third, whether Stack announces expansion into Malaysia or Thailand by mid-2025, the only two markets in Southeast Asia with available grid capacity above 500 megawatts and permitting timelines under 24 months.
BlackRock and IFM just paid $17,857 per kilowatt of capacity. The replacement cost in Singapore today sits near $22,000 per kilowatt, and rising.
The takeaway
$25B Stack deal resets Asia data center valuations to 23x EBITDA, pricing in hyperscaler dependency and power scarcity through 2030.
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