£45m investment into central London data centre

RNS Number : 1903I

Digital 9 Infrastructure PLC

13 April 2022

 

13 April 2022

DIGITAL 9 INFRASTRUCTURE PLC

("D9", the "Company" or, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group")

£45m investment into central London data centre

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (ticker: DGI9) is pleased to announce that it has signed a binding sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of GAData Holdings Limited (trading as Volta Data Centres, "Volta") for £45 million (the "Acquisition"). Volta wholly owns and operates a premier data centre facility based in central London, providing co-location services. The Acquisition delivers on D9's metro edge data centre strategy, identifying facilities located in or near urban centres offering robust connectivity to customers which require low latency solutions. This complements D9's Verne Global and SeaEdge data centre strategies.

Key highlights:

· 6 MW data centre in central London, operating since 2013

· Over 40 networks available in its carrier-neutral facility, ranking it in the top 10 for connectivity amongst all central London data centres, and first amongst independents

· Diversified customer base of over 100 clients from the finance, media, tech, telecom and energy sectors

· Offers direct access to multiple cloud platforms

· Over 50% of the MW sold have a direct power pass through in the contract, reducing Volta's exposure to power price fluctuations

· Focus on achieving carbon neutrality, with energy sourced from renewable sources

· Owns the long leasehold to the 91,000 square foot building in which it operates, on the edge of the City of London, a short walk from Farringdon Station

· Central London location is in line with D9's stated strategy of acquiring assets with robust connectivity close to end users and devices in metro edge locations, complementing its Verne Global and SeaEdge data centre strategies

Jack Waters, Chair of Digital 9 Infrastructure plc, commented:

"Data centres form a key part of the digital infrastructure backbone. The acquisition of Volta, which was a pipeline investment identified at IPO, adds to our portfolio of data centres which are in key connectivity locations, as D9 continues to build an integrated platform, driving connectivity throughout its investments."

Thor Johnsen, Head of Digital Infrastructure at Triple Point Investment Management LLP, commented:

"Volta is one of central London's best connected data centres, providing a unique opportunity to purchase a freehold operating asset with over 100 customers and an exciting long-term future as customers continue to seek low latency access in key centralised locations. We are particularly excited to explore opportunities across existing enterprise customers to optimise data centre utilisation across the broader platform, balancing the low latency metro access of Volta with the predictable power costs and sustainability benefits of our Nordic data centre platform, Verne Global."  

Akur Capital advised the Group on the Acquisition.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT

Triple Point Investment Management LLP (Investment Manager) Thor Johnsen Andre Karihaloo	[phone]
J.P. Morgan Cazenove (Corporate Broker) William Simmonds Jérémie Birnbaum	[phone]
Akur Capital (Financial Adviser) Tom Frost Anthony Richardson Siobhan Sergeant	[phone]

LEI: 213800OQLX64UNS38U92

NOTES:

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9) is an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange with ticker DGI9. The Company invests in the infrastructure of the internet that underpins the world's digital economy: digital infrastructure.

The number 9 in Digital 9 Infrastructure comes from the UN Sustainable Development Goal 9, which focuses the fund on investments that increase connectivity globally and improve the sustainability of digital infrastructure. D9's portfolio will comprise scalable platforms and technologies including (but not limited to) subsea fibre, data centres, terrestrial fibre, and wireless networks.

With its IPO in March 2021 and three subsequent placings, D9 has raised total equity of £845 million and invested into data centres, subsea fibre and wireless networks:

· Aqua Comms , a leading owner and operator of 20,000km of the most modern subsea fibre systems - the backbone of the internet - with a customer base comprising global tech and global telecommunications carriers (April 2021);

· Verne Global , the leading Icelandic data centre platform, with 40MW of high intensity computing solutions in operation or development, powered by 100% baseload renewable power (September 2021);

· EMIC-1 , a partnership with Meta on a 10,000km fibre system from Europe to India (July 2021);

· SeaEdge UK1 , a data centre and landing station for the North Sea Connect subsea cable, part of the North Atlantic Loop subsea network, improving connectivity between the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and North America (December 2021);

· Host Ireland , a leading enterprise broadband provider that owns and operates Fixed Wireless Access networks (April 2022); and

· Volta , a premier data centre based in central London, providing 6 MW retail co-location services (April 2022) .

The Investment Manager is Triple Point Investment Management LLP ("Triple Point") which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, with extensive experience in infrastructure, real estate and private credit, while keeping ESG principles central to its business mission. Triple Point's Digital Infrastructure team has over US$ 300 billion in digital infrastructure transaction experience and in-depth relationships across global tech and global telecoms companies. For more information, please visit www.triplepoint.co.uk .

The Company's Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange on 31 March 2021.

For more information, please visit  www.d9infrastructure.com .

 

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