Australia’s largest listed data centre company, NEXTDC, is seeking to raise A$750m (€453m) to fund its Asia expansion and to enter Thailand.
The company issued a fully underwritten A$550m institutional placement of new fully paid ordinary shares at A$17.15 per share, which represents a 3.9% discount to the last close. There is also a non-underwritten share purchase plan to raise up to A$200m.
Proceeds from the raising are intended to finance the acquisition of new data centre development sites in Asia to expand the company’s data centre development pipeline in Asia.
The company has 17 operating data centres in Australia, and it has projects in various stages of development for its first data centres in New Zealand, Japan and Malaysia.
NEXTDC is planning its expansion in these new markets, including site evaluation and negotiation in the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Johor, Malaysia’s southernmost state.
Craig Scroggie, CEO and managing director of NEXTDC, said in addition to the firm’s ongoing development and expansion in Malaysia, this capital raising will “support another significant step in NEXTDC’s expansion efforts in Southeast Asia and underscores our commitment to delivering world class Tier IV and built-to-suit data centre solutions across the region”.
“We’re thrilled the Thailand BOI [Board of Investment] approved our investment application for a new NEXTDC hyperscale data centre in Bangkok.”
Securing approval for foreign direct investment allowed NEXTDC to advance the planning and development of a new data centre in Bangkok once a suitable site had been acquired, he added.
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