Australian colo provider NextDC has put forward an offer to buy up Asia Pacific Data Centre (APDC) trust, an operator partially-owned by NextDC, with data centers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Last week, NextDC moved to delay an attempt by 360 Capital Group, another APDC shareholder, to replace the management at APDC. Tony Pitts, a fund manager at 360 Capital Group, which owns 19.1 percent of APDC, expressed his ambitions to replace the trust’s managerial team with his own.  In response, NextDC placed a 14.1 percent blocking stake forward before the company’s board. Shareholders were due to vote on Pitts’ proposal on 28 July, but this vote has been sidelined by NextDC’s bid. 

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NextDC told investors that this time around it has added an 18.6 percent stake in the trust, bought at a cost of AU$38.2m (US$30.19m), and that it has put forward an offer to gain ownership of the remaining securities it does not yet own. 

“In 2015, we advised the market of our change in strategy to own more of our data center properties over the longer term when we announced that NextDC would proceed to develop and own the new data centers for Brisbane and Melbourne” said Craig Scroggie, NextDC CEO.

“S1, M1 and P1 are properties well known to us and represent a low risk acquisition for NextDC.”

The operator intends to fund the stake and the acquisition with the company’s existing cash reserves.

NextDC currently operates five data centers, all of which are in Australia, with plans for another three respectively in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. The company also has a partnership with CenturyLink, offering colocation services from the data center giant’s facilities in over 60 countries.