Principal Global Investors has acquired the Getronics Data Centre in Runcorn, UK, marking the second data centre acquisition of the Principal European Data Centre Fund I (the Fund).
The asset is a 7.5MVA, 45,000 sq ft data centre leased to Getronics, the Dutch-headquartered global ICT integrator, serving the expanding greater Manchester data centre market. It was purchased in an off-market £41 mln (€46 mln) sale and leaseback transaction, with Getronics committing to a 20-year lease. JLL advised Getronics with CBRE representing Principal Real Estate.
Last month, Principal announced the first acquisition of the Fund with the purchase of the AtlasEdge data centre in Barcelona, as well as the second capital raise of the Fund, bringing the total amount of equity raised to €205 mln.
Paul Lewis, director of European data centres, real estate, Principal Global Investors, commented: ‘Following our first acquisition in Barcelona, we have strong momentum to achieve our goals for the final close of our Data Centre Fund and to continue executing on our acquisition plans across Europe. The Getronics data centre is located in a rapidly growing market that services a large metropolitan area and we look forward to a successful relationship with the Getronics team.’
The Fund focuses on manage-to-core data centre assets. At least 60% of the Fund will be allocated to the core European markets of Germany, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and Ireland, with up to 40% in other European markets such as Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.
Principal Real Estate has global experience investing in data centres and closed its first closed-end data centre fund in the United States in June 2021, which was oversubscribed at €471.4 mln.
Since entering the data centre market in 2007, Principal Real Estate has committed over €2.06 bn in data centre acquisitions and developments and owns more than €1.04 bnin data centre REITs.
