Case study · Advisory
Adani Group, Pan-India
$10B. 1.5 GW. Five to ten Indian markets. Benton Peret led the strategy that built this program from concept to a signed joint venture with EdgeConnex.
The challenge
Real assets, no data center business. Yet.
Adani Group arrived with real assets in hand: ports, power generation, and transmission across the Indian subcontinent. The missing piece was a way to turn that footprint into a data center business.
India's market in 2019 was fragmented and regulated differently state by state. Real estate in the densest metros was constrained. Equipment supply chains for critical infrastructure had not caught up to hyperscale demand. COVID-19 hit mid-engagement and disrupted both the program timeline and the partner conversations. The internal teams at Adani and potential partners operated with different technical cultures and decision rhythms, which made every milestone harder to land.
The goal was never a single building. Adani wanted a national platform that could deploy more than 100 MW per year across markets with meaningfully different land, power, and regulatory profiles.
Our role
Blank page to signed joint venture.
Benton Peret led the full strategy engagement for PGCIS, starting with market entry analysis across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Noida, and Pune, plus cable landing station positions. Site selection criteria were built to reflect both what Adani's infrastructure could support and what hyperscale and institutional tenants would require.
We developed a standardized reference architecture and design basis that could hold up across markets with different grid profiles, land configurations, and supply chain realities. That standard was paired with a prefabrication approach to reduce on-site construction time and maintain consistency at scale.
We built the investment case: budgets, financial models, and materials designed for hyperscale prospects and capital partners. We then ran a structured joint venture tender, evaluating candidates on technical depth, market position, and fit with Adani's long-range ambitions. EdgeConnex was selected. AdaniConnex was formed.
We also mapped Special Economic Zone qualification paths across the target markets, a factor with direct impact on long-term cost and investor return.
Outcomes
What happened
- Joint venture executed with EdgeConnex as the partner; AdaniConnex launched as the operating entity
- Platform standard built to support 100-plus MW per year across multiple markets
- Business plan developed covering 1.5 GW of capacity across 5 to 10 Indian markets
- Hyperscale and institutional investor prospects engaged through purpose-built materials
- Program advanced through COVID-19 disruptions on schedule
- Adani positioned to lead India's data center market by 2030
What this proves
Advisory that a partner will sign and an institution will fund.
Pulling this off meant holding a program together across regulatory environments, cultural differences, supply chain constraints, and a global pandemic, while producing capital-grade outputs at every step. PGCIS ran it from blank-page analysis through a competitive joint venture tender. The result was a named partner and a deployable national platform.