Altice Portugal (Portugal Telecom): Horizon Equity will buy Covilhã’s Portugal data center from Altice for $107m

According to reports, the French telco Altice is almost ready to sell its core data center in Portugal. According to Jornal Económico, the company is discussing selling its Covilh data facility for $107.8m. Horizon Equity Partners, a Portuguese infrastructure investor, is reportedly the most probable buyer. An agreement may be reached in July.

The 813,000-square-foot Covilh facility, initially built by Portugal Telecom, provides 129,000 square feet of colocation space across 24 data halls, sufficient for more than 50,000 servers. It was established in 2013 and expanded in 2018 and is Tier III certified by Uptime. In December 2022, rumors surfaced that the telecommunications company intended to sell the facility.

A moat encircles the cube-shaped data center to create the illusion that it is hovering on water and to create a cooler microclimate. A rainwater harvesting system serves the moat, and the site includes a garden with over 600 trees and photovoltaic solar power generation. 

Horizon's past investments include the Portuguese tower company Omtel, spun off from Altice, and the solar company Diagonal Fortune. In November 2022, it was reported that the French telecommunications company was also seeking to dispose of up to 92 data centers in France, including a 'handful' of larger sites and 'dozens' of lesser facilities. A transaction involving its French portfolio could be worth approximately $1.1 billion.