SINGAPORE (May 28): A consortium of US firm KKR and Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has emerged as the frontrunner to buy a minority stake worth US$1 billion (RM4.7 billion) in one of Asia's biggest data centre providers, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The potential investment in STT Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) reflects growing interest and demand for data centres across Asia Pacific as nations and companies respond to the boom in artificial intelligence.

The KKR-SingTel consortium is competing with New York-headquartered alternative investment firm Stonepeak for the stake of up to 20%, one of the sources said.

A deal could be sealed or announced in early June, the first source added.

The sources declined to be identified as the information is not yet public.

KKR declined to comment. SingTel, STT and Stonepeak did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

New York-based global investment firm KKR bought a 20% stake in SingTel's regional data centre business last year for S$1.1 billion.

In February KKR announced it had raised US$6.4 billion for a fund focused on Asia-Pacific infrastructure and energy-related assets.

Founded in 2014, STT GDC is one of the fastest growing data centre providers with operations in Singapore, the UK, Germany, India, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, according to its website.

ST Telemedia, parent of STT GDC, is a Singapore-headquartered strategic investor specialising in assets including communications and data centres, according to its website.

ST Telemedia is wholly-owned by Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings.