This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DIGITAL infrastructure investor Global Data Centre Group (ASX: GDC) has seen a marginal increase in profit over FY23, against major growth in the sector.
GDC’s statutory net profit was $40.2 million, up $40.3 million on FY23.
With the group’s statutory revenue at $27.6 million, an increase of 123% from the previous year.
Statutory earnings per security were at 52.0 cents per security, up 52.1 cents per security on the previous corresponding period. Statutory NAV increase to $2.59 per security, up 22% on the previous corresponding period.
Total assets decreased to $212.6 million in line with its new strategy to realise value of assets to unitholders over the medium term.
In the process of disposing GDC’s assets, the group successfully signed agreements to sell Etix Everywhere in May, with closing scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.
Proceeds from the sales are forecast at approximately $174.6 million.
GDC also sold its Perth Data Centre, Malaga, for $39.0 million with net proceeds after bank debt of $14.25 million.
At the same time, the group obtained its hyperscale investment exposure through an investment of $37 million into the MAM led consortium that acquired an 88% in AirTrunk.
By the close of the financial year, GDC’s carrying value of its investment in AirTrunk was at $73.4 million, following the $24.1 million value uplift.
As at 30 June 2024, GDC’s cash on hand was at $27.9 million.
In the sector, recent research from JLL found the global edge data centre market is set to surpass the US$310 billion market by 2026, as the demand skyrockets due to the Internet Of Things, Cloud and Generative AI growth.
With CBRE’s annual Global Data Centre Investor Survey finding 97% of respondents are planning to increase their investment into data centres in 2024, with 92% allocating more than $100 million into data centres and 44% planning to allocate more than US$500 million into the sector. While CBRE’s Q1 Asia Pacific Data Centre Trends report found new Australian data centre supply is now fully contracted.