Princeton Digital Group (PDG), an Asia-Pacific data center operator backed in part by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has agreed to sell five data centers in Indonesia to SM+, the digital infrastructure arm of local conglomerate Sinar Mas.
The deal, announced this week between PDG and PT SMPlus Digital Investama, covers operational facilities located in Greater Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Pekanbaru. PDG will retain its hyperscale facilities and projects in the Greater Jakarta area. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Once the sale closes, SM+ will operate 31 sites across 25 markets in Indonesia. Herson Suindah, president director and group CEO of SM+ Holdings, said the acquisition marks a milestone in the company’s effort to build what he called Indonesia’s leading home-grown digital infrastructure platform, adding that the new facilities expand the company’s nationwide footprint and its ability to serve customers supporting Indonesia’s digital economy.
Sinar Mas Expands Its Footprint
SM+, based in Jakarta, is a digital infrastructure and services platform backed by Sinar Mas and founded in 2023. Sinar Mas is one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates, with interests spanning paper, agri-business, financial services, real estate development, communications, technology, energy, infrastructure and healthcare. Its SM+ Data Centers division currently owns and operates 25 data centers across the country, representing close to 40MW of operational and under-development capacity, including around 10MW of live ‘Edge’ sites and a larger facility in development in Jakarta.
PDG’s Indonesia Strategy
PDG was founded in 2017 and operates or is developing data centers across China, Singapore, India, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan, with a portfolio the company says totals 1.8GW. It entered Indonesia in 2019 by acquiring a 70 percent stake in the data center portfolio of telecommunications operator XL Axiata, now known as XLSmart, which gave it five data centers in Pekanbaru, Cibitung, Surabaya, Bintaro and Bandung — the same assets now being sold to SM+.
Varoon Raghavan, co-founder and chief operating officer of Princeton Digital Group, said Indonesia has been a key market for the company since its 2019 entry, describing the sites now being sold as enterprise-grade assets acquired under an ‘enter-and-expand’ market strategy. He said PDG has since built a hyperscale data center portfolio of roughly 400MW in the country and will continue focusing on that business, including its JC2, JC3 and JC4 campuses, with further expansion underway.
PDG’s remaining hyperscale facilities are all located around Greater Jakarta. The JC2 site near Cibitung offers 22MW, the in-development JC3 campus in Cikarang is planned to offer 120MW, and the planned JC4 campus is expected to offer 240MW. The company has also previously outlined plans for a site in Batam.
Backers Behind the Deal
Private equity firm Warburg Pincus is PDG’s largest shareholder. The company’s other backers include Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, the UAE’s Mubadala, and Stonepeak.
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