Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman is also in Donald Trump's camp
AFP

A Blackstone-led consortium is nearing a $13.53 billion deal to buy Australian data center operator AirTrunk.

News about the deal, which includes the debt of the company, was initially reported by Bloomberg on Monday. It revealed that owners of AirTrunk, including Macquarie Group and Canada's Public Sector Pension Investment Board, were already on the final details of the transaction.

The one who relayed the information wanted to remain anonymous since the information about the deal was private, according to Reuters citing "a person with knowledge" about the negotiations.

Blackstone, together with its partner Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), outbid another investment group, and came out as the preferred buyer. Earlier, Reuters reported that aside from Blackstone, IFM consortium -- comprising DigitalBridge, GIP, Mubadala's MGX and Silver Lake -- was also bidding for AirTrunk,.

In addition, reports say the deal could be signed as soon as this week. However, since the deal has not been finalized yet, there is still a possibility that terms could change as negotiations are still underway.

Macquarie and PSP own a major chunk of AirTrunk, which is considered a giant when it comes to data center operations. The company, based in Australia, expanded its operations to several Asian countries namely, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

Macquarie is not new to investments made in digital infrastructure and is touted as among the most active and largest investors in the sector. In 2020, a group led by Macquarie's infrastructure arm took control of AirTrunk in a deal that valued it at about A$3 billion, Bloomberg reported at the time. Prior to that, investors including Goldman Sachs' special situations division owned the company.

Blackstone is actively investing in data centers. In July, Blackstone revealed it has more than $70 billion in prospective data center pipeline development and also had a current data center portfolio of $55 billion, including facilities under construction.