This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
RIDING the wave of the AI and cloud services boom, ASX-listed Macquarie Technology Group has secured a $450 million refinancing for its data centre portfolio expansion.
Under the new syndicated facility agreement Macquarie has access to a five-year secured revolving loan facility that shows an increase of $260 million to the previous facility.
“Due to strong appetite from domestic and international lending institutions, the new facility has been secured on highly competitive key commercial terms, including pricing,” Macquarie said.
CEO David Tudehope said that following the $174 million acquisition of the Macquarie Park Data Centre Campus and the commencement of the IC3 Super West construction, “we have marked another milestone with this successful debt refinance process”.
“The new facility will provide the capacity and flexibility to enable us to further invest and expand our data centre business,” he said.
In combination with cash and cash equivalents of $118 million at the end of September, the group said it has sufficient liquidity to complete the build of IC3 Super West Phase 1 at Macquarie Park Data Centre, with excess capacity to fund future growth.
“We have been delighted by the outstanding interest received from domestic and international financial institutions in this process and are looking forward to building strong relationships with the new group of lenders,” Tudehope said.
RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisor and DLA Piper as legal adviser to the group in relation to the refinancing.
Turner & Townsend’s annual Data Centre Cost Index shows that power constraints, equipment delays and a skills and materials shortage might be the only things in the way of the surging sector. Earlier this year, new Australian data centre supply was fully contracted, CBRE said.
Australia ranks fifth globally and the second within the Asia Pacific region for built-out capacity, after the Asia Pacific data centre market recorded 1.3 GW boost in capacity over the first half of 2024, led by Sydney.
Australia’s investable universe for data centres is set to almost double to $40 billion over the coming four years, according to CBRE’s Australia’s Data Centres 2024 report.
Major plays have seen ASX-listed data centre operator NextDC raise nearly $2 billion this year to develop and boost facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and in Asia, while industrial real estate giant Goodman Group has sharpened its focus on the booming data centres sector, and harbours a growing pipeline that could have an end value of up to $100 billion.
Meanwhile, institutional investor Centuria Capital Group is looking to the future of the surging data centre sector, acquiring a 50% in provider ResetData in another early-mover play – this time, with a focus on liquid immersion cooling technology that harbours potential to unlock value in existing office buildings.
