New suitors have emerged in a process launched by Data4 to sell a minority stake in a portfolio of operational data centres, with a second round of non-binding offers now on the cards, according to sources familiar with the deal.

EDF Invest is among parties tipped to submit an indicative bid for the assets put on the block by Paris-headquartered Data4, the sources said. Additionally, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Japanese investor Orix Group are considering filing a bid, sources added.

Brookfield-backed Data4 is set to take new NBOs towards the beginning of November, according to one of the sources, after receiving an initial round of offers in September. The reason for seeking new indicative bids is unclear.

Earlier this month Infralogic reported that Arjun Infrastructure Partners and InfraRed Capital Partners were among the parties that filed initial bids and were shortlisted to continue in the process.

One source added that the seller could seek binding offers by the end of November.

Data4, advised by Citi, launched the sale process in July to raise capital from around 240 MW of mature assets and redeploy it into new data centres under development.

The assets in question are known as stabilised assets, meaning data centres that are fully operational and at least 80% occupied.

In parallel with the sale, the data centre firm is raising EUR 2.2bn of debt underwritten by six banks to finance the portfolio, which could be worth up to EUR 3.5bn including debt, according to a report by Bloomberg in August.

The potential value of the assets would match the EUR 3.5bn enterprise value for all of Data4 when Brookfield acquired the company from AXA IM Alts in April 2023 – a price that represented a multiple of around 29x the company’s latest adjusted EBITDA of EUR 120m.

Data4 currently has 35 data centres in France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany and Greece with 1 GW of combined capacity, according to its website.

EDF Invest and Orix declined to comment. Data4, Citi and Mubadala did not respond to requests for comment.