This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
FOLLOWING a year dominated by a takeover tussle with 360 Capital for its landlord Asia Pacific Data Centre Group, NextDC has reported a revenue above its guidance range as it prepares to plunge $2.25 billion into its three new data centres.
The data centre operator posted revenue of $161.5 million for the 2018 financial year, above FY17’s $123.6 million and its guidance range of between $152 million to $158 million.
Underlying EBITDA grew from $49.0 million to $62.6 million, just above guidance range also, but its net profit after tax came was trimmed down from $23.0 million to $6.6 million.
NextDC has recently opened its B2 and M2 data centres in Brisbane and Melbourne for customer access, while construction at S2 in Sydney is underway, as is expansion of its P1 asset in Perth.
It announced three new sites at S3 in Sydney, M3 in Melbourne and P2 in Perth over the year, and chief executive officer Craig Scroggie told Fairfax said the group would put $2.25 billion towards the centres as technological advances demand more data capacity.
The group has spent $90 million buying land close to the Sydney CBD for its S3 site and was close to finalising its new Melbourne location.
Contracted utilisation was up 28% over the year to 40.2MW, and the number of customers by 26% to 972.
B2 and M2 are the first Australian data centres, and the first Asia Pacific colocation data centres, to achieve Uptime Institute (UTI) Tier IV Certification of Constructed Facility (TCCF), in “recognition of their exceptional fault tolerance”.
NextDC has forecast revenue of between $194 million to $200 million for FY19, and underlying EBITDA from $75 million to $80 million.
The group remains locked in a legal battle over the future of APDC, which is now majority-owned by 360 Capital while NextDC owns a sizable blocking stake. NextDC has sought to wind-up the trust, while 360 Capital-controlled APDC has sought to sell of the three assets – data centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
The latest hearing in the Supreme Court of New South Wales revolves around APDC’s claim that it was unable to get access to the facilities on “numerous attempts” for inspection by valuers and potential purchasers.
Australian Property Journal
