Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) [OTEL.OM] and Equinix, an interconnection and data centre company, entered into a joint venture as equal shareholders in a data centre company, which will be located in Barka, according to a company disclosure. The joint venture will establish a carrier-neutral hub in Oman where carriers, content providers and cloud providers co-locate critical IT infrastructure. The data centre will be a part of Platform Equinix™, which is composed of 200 data centres globally and provides access to business ecosystems made up of 2.9k+ cloud providers, 1.7+ network providers, and 800+ content and digital media providers. Equinix will operate the new data centre, which will include 18.6k sqf of co-location space and c750 cabinets at full build. The first of the three phases will include 250 cabinets and is expected to be completed and functional by 2Q19. 
 
Omantel: OMR0.72 as of 5 Jul. 2018, Rating: Neutral, TP: OMR1.39/share, MCap: USD1,421mn, OTEL OM/OTEL.OM