In the past week, bidding for major Australian data centre provider AirTrunk has reached the final offer stage. Two consortiums are bidding- on one hand, Blackstone Group in partnership with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The latter company together with Macquarie Asset Management currently control 88% of AirTrunk. The other consortium includes IFM Investors together with Digital Bridge, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Mubadala’s MGX, and Silver Lake. The final offers submitted on August 27th value AirTrunk’s portfolio at A$20 billion (US$13.55 billion). No deadline has been set for a final decision on the bids presented. AirTrunk is being assisted in this process by Macquarie Group and Goldman Sachs.
This latest valuation of a data centre portfolio can be taken to indicate the importance of data centres and digital infrastructure to an economy and society which are becoming digitalized. This trend is accelerating the interest of investors in the sector.
