The Carlyle group is acquiring an about 25 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel’s data centre business —Nxtra Data — for $235 million, or about Rs 1,780 crore, that sets the enterprise valuation of Nxtra at $1.2 billion, which is over Rs 9,084 crore.

The Nxtra deal — Airtel will hold 75 per cent in the company — is Carlyle’s third in the last two months. The transaction comes close on the heels of the US-based private equity firm picking up a 20 per cent stake in the pharmaceutical business of Piramal Enterprises Ltd (PEL) for $490 million, or Rs 3,700 crore.

Carlyle had entered into a binding agreement to acquire a majority stake in SeQuent Scientific in May.

“Bharti Airtel and Comfort Investments II, an affiliated entity of CAP V Mauritius Ltd, an investment fund managed and advised by affiliated entities of the Carlyle Group, on Wednesday announced.

an agreement under which Comfort Investments II will invest $235 million in Nxtra Data Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel engaged in the data centre business,” a statement from Bharti Airtel said.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, including permission from the Competition Commission of India.

Nxtra, which is based in the capital, offers data centre services to leading Indian and global enterprises, start-ups, small and medium businesses and governments.

Airtel said India was witnessing a considerable surge in demand for secure data centres as businesses undertake digital transformation and consumer demand for digital services continues to increase.

Nxtra is building multiple large data centres to capture the significant growth opportunities in the country.

“Last year, the company commissioned a data centre in Pune and is building more across Chennai, Mumbai and Calcutta. Nxtra will use the proceeds from this transaction to continue scaling up its infrastructure and offerings across the country,” it said.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said, “At Airtel, we have built a robust data centre portfolio that is future ready and scalable. For us, the security and data privacy requirements of our customers are our top priorities, which we have established as a key differentiator for our data centre offerings.”

Shares of Bharti Airtel were rangebound as it ended at Rs 559.80 in the BSE.