Acquisition of Nordic Data Centre

RNS Number : 1308J

Digital 9 Infrastructure PLC

25 April 2022

 

25 April 2022

DIGITAL 9 INFRASTRUCTURE PLC

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

€135 million acquisition of Nordic Data Centre and Cloud Services Provider

Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (ticker: DGI9) is pleased to announce that it has signed a sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of Ficolo Oy ("Ficolo") for a total consideration of € 135 million (the "Acquisition"). The Acquisition is expected to complete later this year following customary regulatory approval.

Ficolo is a leading Finnish data centre and cloud services platform. Its ultra-modern infrastructure, spread across three campuses, is industry-leading in terms of energy efficiency and environmental credentials, using 100% renewable power and distributing surplus heat to district heating networks.

The Acquisition builds upon D9's strong presence in the Nordic data centre market. It delivers on D9's environmentally sustainable data centre strategy which focuses on shifting the energy-intensive processing of growing data sets to the Nordics to deliver green data centre solutions in a geographically optimal environment. D9 expects material synergies through integrating Ficolo into its existing portfolio.

Key highlights:

· Available data centre capacity of c.23MW (including 8MW of fully and partially fitted IT capacity) and further expansion opportunity in its existing sites of up to c.90MW;

· Provides colocation and connectivity services to a diversified Finnish and international customer base, with large IT/cybersecurity corporate clients and with minimal churn;

· Offers a hybrid cloud service, providing an enhanced market position over colocation-only providers;

· Experienced leadership team with a strong track record in delivering data centre solutions.

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

"Our data centre strategy is focused on identifying strategic locations that are suitable based on their level of connectivity and access to renewable energy. The acquisition of Ficolo, with its significant expansion potential, is another important step in D9's ambition to decarbonise the data centre industry. Ficolo adds to our portfolio of Nordic data centres and represents some of the cleanest, lowest carbon footprint data centres globally."

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

"Together with Ficolo, D9 now how has one of the premier pan-European authentically green data-centre portfolios, benefiting from the less volatile, less carbon-intensive green energy supplies of the Nordics. Transitioning data centre services to our green data centre portfolio is not just a question of improving sustainability, but also benefiting from lower cost and less volatile power prices. The combined portfolio's long track record of high-quality operations across the Nordics provides a significant growth opportunity to continue to invest and monetise capacity to local and international customers." 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY, PLEASE CONTACT

Triple Point Investment Management LLP (Investment Manager) Thor Johnsen Andre Karihaloo	[phone]
RBC Capital Markets (M&A Adviser) Alexander Thomas Damien Grudé James Colvin	[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. The assets D9 invests in typically comprise of 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 a revolving credit facility of £300 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, 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);

· Volta , a premier data centre based in central London, providing 6MW of colocation services (April 2022) ;

· Ficolo , a data centre and cloud services platform in Finland, with c.23MW of available capacity for colocation, cloud and connectivity services, with expansion opportunities of up to c.90MW.

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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