Telecity buys Finnish data centre operator for Eastern expansion

British firm TelecityGroup has bought Finnish data centre operator Tenue for £3.7 million in cash, in a move that will boost its capacity by 1 MW and enable it to take advantage of growing internet traffic from Russia.

The company said that Helsinki is an emerging internet hub city within the Nordic region with a high potential for growth. Plans are already underway to build a new data centre which will offer a further 4MW of customer capacity.

“There is significant demand from our customers for high quality, connected data centre services with proximity to the growing Russian market,” said Michael Tobin, CEO of TelecityGroup.

“I am delighted to welcome Sami Holopainen and his team at Tenue to TelecityGroup and look forward to working together as we continue to expand our presence across Europe.”

Telecity, whose carrier-neutral data centres host the likes of Spotify, Transport for London and T-Systems, saw revenues jump by 22.4% to £137.3 million in the first half of 2012. Pre-tax profits also rose 18% to £40 million.

The company owns three facilities in London and four in Manchester, as well as numerous others in Dublin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris and Stockholm.

Telecity increased its capacity by 12MW to 80MW during the half, and has plans to grow this to 130MW in the next few years. The group attributes much of its growth to securing city centre locations that allow easier access to communications networks.

“I am again delighted with TelecityGroup’s performance,” said Tobin “It is testament to the strength of TelecityGroup’s business model that we are able to expand the Group’s growth horizon while at the same time commencing a progressive dividend policy.”

Last month Communications Minister Ed Vaizey opened Telecity's Powergate data centre in West London, which the company claims will help boost the digital economy in London and across the UK.

“It’s great to see companies like TelecityGroup investing in the infrastructure we need to ensure the UK can not only compete but be a world-leader in the digital age,” Vaizey said at the time.

TechMarketView analyst Anthony Miller said the demand for the sort of colocation service that Telecity offers shows no signs of abating.

“With more and more computing moving off-premise, why ever would it?” he said. “It's rather hard to find anything new to say about European data centre stars Telecity, other than ‘shine on’!”