Infratil Limited advises that it has received FIRB approval to complete the acquisition of Canberra Data Centres. Settlement of the transaction is expected to occur this month.

On 19 May 2016, Infratil announced that it had agreed to acquire a 48% shareholding in Canberra Data Centres (CDC) for total cash equity consideration of A$392 million. The consideration includes estimated transaction costs of A$11 million and is subject to the normal completion adjustments for working capital and net debt.

CDC is the leading provider of outsourced data centre services in Canberra and a trusted partner to numerous Federal Government agencies and private sector customers. Through its customised, modular design, CDC is able to offer highly secure and flexible data centre solutions to its customers. The business is led by Greg Boorer its CEO and founder, and has a strong management team with an established track record of delivering growth.

The business has achieved strong recent growth and has a number of growth opportunities underway, including its fourth data centre (Hume 3) which has achieved occupancy and operational use compliance (although fit out works will continue as the facility is filled). CDC currently has ~39MW of existing capacity split across four facilities (including Hume 3) and two data centre campuses.

In conjunction with Hume 3, CDC continues to progress the Fyshwick 2 development opportunity. The notice of decision and design acceptance was issued by the ACT government in June 2016 for the purpose of use, size of development and development design. The target date for building approval and development commencement is at the end of 2016. Once complete, Fyshwick 2 will add ~20MW of capacity.

As of May 2016, CDC had an annualised run rate of EBITDA of approximately A$50 million. CDC confirms that the business is on track to deliver growth of around 30% through to full year June 2017 as the business fills existing capacity within its facilities.

Infratil's investment of 48% is matched by Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and alongside CDC’s executive (4%). The CDC investment will be managed by investment management firm H.R.L Morrison & Co on behalf of Infratil and Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation. Infratil and Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation will have 50/50 governance rights with Greg Boorer continuing managing the business as CEO and also remaining on the Board.

Marko Bogoievski
Chief Executive Officer