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TAMUNING, Guam & NEW YORK, NY – December 18, 2023 – TeleGuam Holdings, LLC ("GTA"), Guam’s leading digital infrastructure provider of broadband, wireless, data center, and subsea cable landing services, and Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets, today announced that they have reached an agreement whereby Stonepeak will provide up to a $200 million strategic growth investment to GTA. The investment will be structured as primary capital and Huntsman Family Investments and its affiliates ("HFI") will continue to be the majority owner of GTA and operate the asset.
GTA has long been Guam’s trusted provider of digital infrastructure. In addition to its market-leading quad-play broadband, wireless, telephony, and video solutions, GTA serves global hyperscalers and telecommunications providers connected to Guam through its existing cable landing stations and data center facilities. GTA operates several cable landing stations and data centers in Piti, including its GNC Data Center, which recently added Cogent Communications, one of the world’s largest Internet Service Providers, as a customer. It has also begun expanding into additional geographies with the development of its Alupang Data Center, a 4 megawatt (MW), Tier III data center that will be the first edge computing-led data center in Guam and the region. With Stonepeak’s investment, GTA will be able to further strengthen its presence throughout Guam through the development of additional data centers and the accelerated buildout of its leading fiber network to provide island-wide fiber-to-the-home service, offering faster speeds and increased resilience across the territory to help bridge the digital divide.
“When we acquired GTA in 2017, we backed a visionary management team, led by Roland Certeza and Joseph Shinohara, to develop the digital ecosystem on Guam. Despite the challenges of COVID and Typhoon Mawar, our GTA team has been steadfast in working towards that goal. Today, we are honored to partner with a world class investor, Stonepeak, for the next stage of GTA’s growth and we are looking forward to leveraging their expertise. We are thankful to our GTA team and local investor partners for helping us get to this point,” said Paul Huntsman, Chairman of GTA and President & CEO of Huntsman Family Investments.
“Given Guam’s increasing importance as a strategic hub for transpacific subsea cables, we believe there will be strong demand for additional landing stations and colocation capacity in the years to come,” said Andrew Thomas, Senior Managing Director at Stonepeak. “In our view, GTA is well positioned to meet that demand with its platform of landing stations and data center facilities spanning the island, interconnected through a dense fiber network. We look forward to partnering with HFI and the GTA management team to continue to grow the company.”
As part of this transaction, Benjamin Wu, Partner at Huntsman Family Investments, will assume the role of CEO of Forager Holdings, the parent company of GTA, as the business continues to invest in other digital infrastructure opportunities on Guam, the Pacific Islands, and in the Asia-Pacific region.
“With this investment, we intend to fortify our fiber network, accelerate our data center development and expand our regional presence to ensure that our customers can rely on us for responsive service. We believe that with the support of Stonepeak, we will develop Guam as a preferred gateway between the United States and our allies in Asia, leading to stronger economic and geopolitical ties,” said Benjamin Wu. New York | Hong Kong | Houston | London | Singapore | Sydney
The transaction is expected to close within the next month, subject to customary closing conditions.
Lazard is serving as financial advisor to HFI and GTA. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP is serving as legal counsel to HFI and GTA, and Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal counsel to Stonepeak.
