Companhia Energética de Minas Gerais S.A. (CEMIG), a Brazilian energy company, has sold its share of the local data center corporation Ativas to Sonda, a Chilean IT company, which now owns the majority of the company. In a recent announcement, CEMIG stated that a share purchase contract had been completed to sell 19.6% of its shares in Ativas Data Center S.A. The company stated that the $11.5 million transaction, of which $11.05 million relates to loans and $468,000 relates to indemnification, will be paid by balancing CEMIG's debt obligations with Sonda. The 1952-founded CEMIG holds over 6,000MW of hydroelectric production capacity spread across Brazil and Chile.
In 2016, Sonda paid $35 million to buy the bulk of Brazilian data center company Ativas or around 60%. The company runs a 64,600-square-foot, 2.5 MW-capable data center in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, which was built in 2011. The action might be a step before Sonda completely sells off the data center. The company said last month that it had hired Santander Corporate and Investment Banking to assist it in assessing strategic options for its data center business.
In addition to a partial or whole sale of its data center assets in Chile, Colombia, and Brazil, other options might include a strategic alliance, joint business management, or joint venture. Sonda is a provider of IT consulting and services established in 1974 in collaboration with the Chilean energy and forestry corporation Copec. Sonda has facilities at Kudos, Teatinos, and Quilicura in Chile. In 1975, the company's first data center was launched.
