HMC Capital Ltd (ASX:HMC) is set to acquire Australian co-location data centre operating platform iseek for $400 million, with this adding to its wider plans to develop a Global Digital Infrastructure Platform (DigiCo).
HMC has entered agreements to take on all of iseek’s shares for an upfront cash consideration of $150 million, plus $250 million of scrip in the DigiCo REIT IPO,
with major shareholders and founders agreeing to escrow the majority of this until release of the FY25 and FY26 results.
The acquisition means that HMC has altogether secured $2.5 billion worth of strategic operating assets in Australia, with an additional $1.6bn of data centre assets in North America now in the process of exclusive due diligence.
Together, this acquisition package is set to facilitate establishment of an ASX-listed DigiCo Infrastructure REIT (DigiCo REIT) with more than $4 billion of AUM.
The project is on-track to be completed by the end of the calendar year, with DigiCo REIT being a diversified owner, operator and developer of data centres, with a global portfolio targeting stabilised, value-add and development opportunities.
HMC managing director and CEO David di Pilla said the iseek acquisition was an important part of this story.
“iseek is a leading colocation data centre platform with a high quality and diverse customer base across government, hyperscale and enterprise customers,” he said.
“This acquisition is also highly complementary to our recent acquisition of Global Switch Australia with a number of benefits including enhanced geographic and customer diversification.
“The DigiCo platform will have over 100 dedicated people across iseek, Global Switch Australia and StratCap, and represents the beginning of our strategy to build a world-class operating platform providing investors with exposure to institutional grade digital infrastructure assets in both Australia and North America.”
HMC shares rose on the news, and at 11:03 AEDT, they were trading at $10.59 – an increase of 1.97% since the market opened.
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