Macquarie to raise $130m to expand data centre business

Author: Isha Jain

Macquarie Technology Group has announced that it is raising $130m to expand its data centre business and has entered a trading halt. The company has created a presentation on equity raising to cover its investment highlights, data centre credentials, megatrends, and financial performance.

The presentation reports that $130m is being sought via a non-underwritten institutional placement. The capital will strengthen Macquarie’s balance sheet and provide funding to pursue growth opportunities in its data centre portfolio. The institutional placement is also expected to significantly increase liquidity and free float. As the company has continued delivering new data centres as its demand ramps up in Australia, the institutional placement also positions it to capitalise on the fast-growing cloud and AI megatrends. It is further revealed that the company has a high-quality revenue model and customer base, with over 90% of revenue coming from contracted monthly recurring revenue, and over 60% of billings of top 20 customers AA+ rated or better.

Macquarie is also developing a data centre campus in Sydney’s North Zone and has five data centres in operation. The company is ‘Certified Strategic’ by the Federal Government under the Hosting Certification Framework and invests in data centre and cloud certifications such as PCI DSS 3.2.1 for credit card payments; SCEC and PSPF requirements for government workloads; and SSAE SOC2 for multinational customers.

The presentation concludes by discussing the role of financial services firm, Canaccord Genuity, Australia Ltd on the raise and covers details on equity raise, elaborating the new shares to be issued, fixed offer prices, and gross raise made by institutional investors.

“This raise will strengthen our company and enable us to invest and expand our data centre business to capitalise on cloud and AI megatrends,” says David Tudhope, CEO, Macquarie Technology Group.

“As our economy becomes more digitised, organisations are moving their data and applications to the cloud at a faster pace. The cloud lives in new-generation data centres like ours supported by leading cloud services and cyber security platforms. AI is the next significant megatrend for data centres and the digital economy, driving higher power density and demand for greater capacity. As these two megatrends combine, we expect to see strong demand for the latest generation of data centres.”