Digital Realty Makes Big Push Into Europe
San Francisco-based Digital Realty, a top supplier of technology real estate, has closed on eight data centers across Europe for $874M (or 13 times the firm's 2016 portfolio EBITDA).
Five of the data centers will be in England, two in the Netherlands and one in Germany. The seller was US-based data center provider Equinix.
The acquisitions were part of a larger strategic focus on Europe for Digital Realty. “We believe that Europe will remain a growing, high-demand region for data center solutions,” says CEO William Stein (above). “This portfolio acquisition will further enable us to support the growth of our global customer base, nearly two-thirds of whom deploy data center requirements in multiple metropolitan areas across our portfolio."
The eight properties came on the market after European regulators demanded Equinix divest the sites to complete the acquisition of London-based Telecity. Digital Realty then made the offer.
Digital Realty reports the facilities cover a total of 213k net-sellable SF and facilitate 24.4 megawatts of IT load. The data centers are 72% utilized and serve 650 blue-chip clients.
The real estate firm was advised on financial matters by Greenhill & Co. White & Case served as legal counsel.
The European Commission and the Netherlands authorities approved the sale just prior to closing.
An investor presentation by Digital Realty laid out acquisition criteria prioritizing factors such as proximity to core metro areas, access to fiber infrastructure and ease of doing business.
