Ascendas Reit, a Singaporean REIT sponsored by CapitaLand, has made its first foray in the European data centre market with the acquisition of a portfolio of 11 data centres from US data centre specialist Digital Realty.
The consideration for the four data centers in the UK was £250 mln (€292 mln) and the consideration for the seven data centers on the continent (three in the Netherlands, three in France and one in Switzerland) was €276.85 mln, for a total of $680 mln (€569 mln).
The portfolio is expected to generate 2021 net operating income of $43.5 mln.
‘This transaction represents an important step towards our goal of self-funding our growth and diversifying our sources of equity capital while shrinking our asset base and setting the stage for accelerating growth as the proceeds are redeployed into accretive investment opportunities,’ said Digital Realty Chief Investment Officer Greg Wright. ‘These 11 legacy assets are almost fully leased, and this portfolio sale enables us to harvest value from stabilized properties and reinvest the proceeds to fund the continued expansion of PlatformDIGITAL® in support of our customers' needs around the world.’
Digital Realty expects proceeds from the transaction will initially be used to pay down debt and will ultimately be used to fund future investment activity.
CBRE served as advisor to Digital Realty and White & Case served as Digital Realty's legal advisor on the transaction.
Paul Mortlock, head of EMEA Data Centre Capital Markets, commented: 'The pandemic has placed an acute focus on data and technology and investors are seeking opportunities in the Data Centre space to capitalise on the booming occupational demand we are witnessing.'
