Japan’s telecommunication giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) has lodged a preliminary initial public offering (IPO) prospectus for its data centre real estate investment trust NTT DC REIT on the Singapore Exchange (SGX), according to information published on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s website on Friday, as per The Edge report.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the company was looking to lodge the prospectus with the Singapore regulator as early as the last week of June and list on SGX as early as July, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.
W. Media in May reported that NTT DATA Group Corporation, a partially-owned subsidiary of NTT, had on May 8 approved the transfer of six data centers valued at 240.7 billion yen (US$ 1.6 billion) from a subsidiary to a Singapore real estate investment trust, NTT DC REIT which is proposed to be listed on SGX in the near future. NTT DC REIT is the REIT arm of NTT Ltd, which is part of NTT.
The IPO portfolio listed the same six data centre assets located in the US, Austria and Singapore, with a total appraised value of about US$ 1.6 billion, according to the preliminary prospectus. The prospectus however did not disclose the IPO amount but the two sources had said in January it could be worth up to US$1 billion in what would be the largest in Singapore in several years. The prospectus also did not say when the IPO would be launched.
NTT did not immediately respond to the press seeking comment on Friday.
The last listing of similar size was a US$ 977 million IPO for Digital Core REIT in 2021.
Cornerstone investors include Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and private investment and asset management firms such as AM Squared Ltd and Viridian Asset Management Ltd, the prospectus showed. Cornerstone investors are large institutional investors that subscribe to an IPO offering before it is open to the public.
