SG, Vietnam Firms in Talks for $150M Undersea Cable Project

HANOI, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Singaporean asset manager Keppel (KPLM.SI), and Vietnamese conglomerate Sovico Group are discussing plans for new undersea fiber-optic cables that would boost the region's data centre industry, people familiar with the discussions said.

Southeast Asian countries, a major junction for cables connecting Asia to Europe, are seeking to expand their networks to meet booming demand for AI services and data centres. Vietnam alone plans to have 10 new submarine cables by 2030.

It would cost $150 million, according to one source with direct knowledge of the talks.

This option is favoured by Sovico, but talks with Keppel on the direct cable are in flux and no agreement has been reached yet, two sources with direct knowledge said.

They added that Keppel prefers a more ambitious cable plan involving a consortium of investors.

Under that second plan, the connection to Vietnam developed by Sovico would be an offshoot of a longer cable, three people said, with one noting it would run from Singapore to Japan with links to countries along the route.

The sources declined to be named because the information was not public.

Sovico, a conglomerate whose operations include aviation and banking, has recently announced plans on data centre development. It did not respond to requests for comment.

Keppel agreed in November to buy an AI-ready data centre facility in Japan. Singapore is a major hub for data centres and undersea cables, but the small island-state has nearly saturated its data usage capacity.