Australia’s HMC Capital to list data centre trust worth $A4 billion

By Scott Murdoch

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s HMC Capital will press ahead with the initial public offering (IPO) of its data centres business that would be worth $A4 billion ($2.64 billion), according to its regulatory filings on Monday (NASDAQ:).

The deal will aim to raise $A2.6 billion, the filings said, making it the largest deal in Australia since GQG Partners raised nearly $A1.2 billion in 2021.

HMC Capital said the DigiCo Investment Trust (REIT) would have 13 data centres in its portfolio and 586 customers.

Its assets under management will stand at about $A4 billion and HMC Capital would invest a minimum of $A500 million that would give it an almost 19% stake in the business.

The IPO comes after HMC said it would spend $A400 million to buy Australian data centre operating platform iseek. iseek will roll A$250 million worth of the purchase price into the DigiCo IPO, HMC said in the regulatory filing.

HMC recently bought the colocation data centre operator Global Switch (NYSE:) Australia for A$1.937 billion and the asset will be a key business in the DigiCo portfolio.

The iseek acquisition had helped push HMC shares up by as much as 4% to a record high of A$10.79.

HMC’s regulatory announcements did not specify a timeline for the IPO but local media said the REIT should be listed on Dec. 16.

($1 = 1.5170 Australian dollars)