Amazon agrees to buy two Hong Kong data centers for at least HK$2.18 billion

Amazon Data Services Hong Kong has agreed to buy iTech Tower 3.1 and iTech Tower 3.2, two adjacent data center properties at 3 On Kui Street and 8 On Chuen Street in Fanling, in Hong Kong's New Territories, from Regal Development and Golden Ford, two subsidiaries of Grand Ming Group Holdings. The minimum gross consideration is HK$2.18 billion (US$277.88 million). The deals are set to close in February 2027.

That figure is a floor, and Grand Ming disclosed how far above it the price can travel: potential further payments of up to HK$265.8 million, for a maximum of HK$2.445 billion (US$311.66 million), with the extra determined by the scope of the planned fit-out and construction works. The contingent slice works out to about 12 percent of the minimum. The arrangement points to a purchase in which the buyer funds the finishing, leaving the seller with a number it can plan around now while everything above that number rides on work whose extent is still open.

The physical state of the two buildings is why the figure moves at all. The first phase of iTech Tower 3.1 was delivered in December 2025 and is already leased to Amazon, with the remaining fit-out works ongoing, while construction on 3.2 continues. Grand Ming acquired the land in 2022 and started work on the first phase the same year; according to the company's website, the nine-story project will offer a combined 185,000 square feet (17,185 square meters) and capacity for 1,000 racks.

This is the second attempt to sell the same capacity, and the earlier one left a usable reference point. Grand Ming had been in discussions to sell its data center business, reportedly to Actis and Bain Capital, and neither deal materialized. Bain had shown interest in the in-development data centers at HK$2.15 billion (US$276 million), but the exclusivity period between the two expired in September before a definitive agreement could be signed. Amazon's floor sits HK$30 million above that figure, though the two describe packages differently, one framed as a data center business and in-development centers and the other as two identified properties with one already producing rent. That makes the proximity a rough marker of where this capacity has been priced rather than a like-for-like trade.

Grand Ming's own account of the disposal is unusually direct. The company said the sales were part of its efforts to deleverage the group's balance sheet through all viable strategies and to reinforce long-term financial stability, adding that it carries sizeable debt liabilities that need to be repaid and that the disposal is one of a package of measures needed to ensure its survival as a going concern. Closing the sale of 3.1 will also end the rental income it collects under the existing leasing and colocation arrangements, converting a recurring stream into a one-time receipt while the second tower is still going up. A seller that describes a disposal that way is saying the timing of the cash matters, and completion is not scheduled until February 2027.

The company's history makes the move legible. Grand Ming dates to 1995 and describes itself as an investment holding company primarily focused on building construction, including building design, additional and alteration works, and building service engineering. A contractor that developed its own site carried the construction risk from the 2022 land purchase through to a first-phase handover, and is now turning part of that position into cash. The further payments are tied to fit-out and construction scope on a project that was still being built when the deal was announced, so what Grand Ming ultimately collects is not settled at signing.

Amazon already occupies the delivered phase of 3.1 under a lease, and the purchase converts that relationship into ownership of both the building it occupies and the one next door that is unfinished. For a cloud operator the logic is legible: rent on a facility whose remaining fit-out it has an interest in becomes capital deployed on an asset it will control. For the seller the trade is harder to like, because every dollar above the minimum hangs on construction scope and the party who will occupy the result is the buyer.

The disclosed timetable keeps that question open. Completion is set for February 2027, with 3.2 under construction and fit-out on 3.1 unfinished, and the Data Center Dynamics report does not say what Amazon intends to do with the capacity at Fanling. Where the further payments land, nearer zero or nearer HK$265.8 million, turns on how much fit-out the buyer ends up needing, which is the one variable the announcement leaves for the months between now and closing.