Blackstone is to take a new data center real estate investment trust (REIT) public.

The investment giant has announced that Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust has publicly filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering.

REITs are companies that own, and often operate, income-producing real estate such as data centers. They act as a fund for investors, generating revenue via leasing space and collecting rent on their properties.

Data center REITs are investment trusts where all or the majority of the trust's revenues come from leasing data centers.

Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BXDC.

Blackstone said the new unit will be focused on acquiring and owning stabilized, newly-constructed data centers, mostly in Tier 1 markets in North America.

Nick Pell, previously president and chief investment officer of Blackstone’s Link Logistics business, has been appointed CEO of the unit.

“We will target newly-constructed, income-generating, stabilized data center properties leased to investment-grade hyperscale tenants on long-term contracts. We intend to invest in essential digital infrastructure primarily in top data center markets that exhibit strong supply-demand dynamics,” Blackstone said in the SEC filing. “We expect to acquire assets with fixed, annual rent escalators and favorable tenant expense reimbursement structures, providing predictable yields and stable cash flows. Our strategy focuses on essential digital infrastructure assets that serve as the backbone for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the broader digital transformation driving economic growth.”

Blackstone is a major investor in the data center space. The company said it has invested more than $130 billion in data center assets since 2018 and has provided more than $10bn of debt financing to data center and digital infrastructure developers and operators.

Blackstone has a number of large-scale data center investments. The company has previously acquired QTS and AirTrunk, and has stakes in Vnet, Lumina CloudInfra, Copeland, Park Place Technologies, and Winthrop Technologies, as well as a number of joint ventures with COPT, Digital Realty, and others. It recently took a large minority stake in US data center firm Rowan.

The new unit is yet to acquire any assets. The filing notes that Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust currently has “no intention” to acquire land or to pursue ground-up development. The company may, however, explore development and redevelopment opportunities, as well as joint ventures, in future.

While many of the major data center firms operate as REITs themselves, many also have spun off publicly-listed REITs that own stakes in their stabilized assets. Digital Realty, GDS, and NTT have previously done this, and Blackstone-owned AirTrunk is reportedly pursuing a similar move.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, J.P. Morgan, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint lead book-running managers. BNP PARIBAS, SMBC Nikko, Societe Generale, BBVA, Credit Agricole CIB, MUFG, Santander and TD Securities are acting as joint book-running managers, and Blackstone Capital Markets is acting as co-manager for the proposed offering.