This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
DAVID Di Pilla’s HMC Capital is launching its new ASX-listed data centre asset platform, DigiCo Infrastructure REIT, with its $2.746 billion IPO successfully underwritten.
DigiCo Infrastructure REIT will have an enterprise value of $4.5 billion in data centre assets across Australia and the United States, with HMC lodging the new REITs prospectus and product disclosure statement with ASIC.
Once listed on the ASX, HMC Capital’s assets under management will reach circa $17.5 billion, reflecting a 73% uplift over the 2024 calendar year.
After significant demand from institutional and retail investors, the IPO was increased by 100 million overnight.
“The establishment of the DigiCo REIT represents another landmark transaction by HMC and demonstrates our ability to build scalable growth platforms via large scale transactions,” said David Di Pilla, managing director and CEO at HMC.
“DigiCo REIT provides a global operating platform in the rapidly growing digital infrastructure sector. The oversubscribed raising and upsized IPO is a testament to the significant level of investor demand for DigiCo’s high quality global portfolio, customer base and development pipeline.”
HMC will own $500 million or around 18% of the REIT upon completion, for a free float market capitalisation of approximately $1.996 billion.
DigiCo’s $4.0 billion portfolio is seeded with $2.5 billion in Australian assets, after HMC’s strategic $1.937 billion acquisition of Global Switch Australia last month and the $400 million takeover deal for iseek earlier this month.
Additionally, HMC and DigiCo REIT entered into agreements to acquire three North American enterprise & hyperscale data centres with 44MW of contracted capacity for $1.5 billion
“On behalf of my fellow directors we are pleased to be joining the Board and are encouraged about the future prospects for the DigiCo Infrastructure REIT,” said Joseph Carrozzi, chair at DigiCo Infrastructure REIT.
“DigiCo is well positioned to capture the growth in data centre demand across government, hyperscale, enterprise and co-location customers. The REIT will aim to deliver stable and growing distributions, long-term capital growth and positive environmental and social impact.”
Investors are increasingly placing their bets on the data centre sector, with AirTrunk selling to Blackstone for $24 billion and Goodman Group is weighting its development workbook towards the asset class.
While Macquarie Technology Group recently ecured a $450 million refinancing for its data centre portfolio, after paying $174 million for its acquisition of the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus earlier this year.
With Australia’s investable universe for data centres set to almost double to $40 billion over the coming four years, the country ranks fifth globally and the second within the Asia Pacific region for built-out capacity.
With Sydney leading the Asia Pacific data centre market capacity boom, with the region recording a 1.3 GW boost in capacity over the first half of 2024, despite power constraints, equipment delays and a skills and materials shortages potentially limiting the rise of the asset class.
Trading of new DigiCo REIT securities is expected to commence on a conditional and deferred settlement basis from 12 December 2024.
