NEXTDC has launched a $1.3 billion capital raising to fund the continuing development and fit-out of its digital infrastructure platform for its core Australian market. The company currently owns 15 data centres across Australia located in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and Perth which collectively account for around 275 000 m2 of space and a power capacity around 800 MW.
It is currently planning international expansion including data centres in markets including New Zealand (currently in planning), Malaysia (in development), Japan (also in planning) and is evaluating potential sites in Tokyo and Singapore.
The lion’s share of the funds raised will be used in projects to update data centers in Sydney and Melbourne and to increase their capacity:
- S3 – boost to 50 megawatts at a cost of $400 million,’
- S4 – deployment of critical high-voltage systems and installation of 10 megawatts of capacity (cost: $350 million)
- S5 – Stage 1 building work project ($300 million), and
- M2 – expansion to 60 megawatts at a cost of $330 million.
Details of the capital raising are reported as follows:- the raising will be achieved through a fully-underwritten entitlement offer of new NEXTDC shares priced at $15.40 each, representing a 6.8% discount to the theoretical ex-rights price of $16.52. Eligible shareholders will be invited to subscribe for one new share for every six ordinary shares already held in NEXTDC.
New shares issued under the entitlement offer will be fully paid and rank equally with existing ones. Eligible shareholders will also be invited to participate in an institutional entitlement offer.