Australian colocation players NextDC and Macquarie Telecom have published strong results for 2021. The figures reflect continued growth in online services during the pandemic.
NextDC's revenue grew 23 percent to AU$246 million ($178m), with a loss of AU$20 million (US$14m), down from the previous year. Meanwhile Macquarie Telecom generated AU$285m (US$206m), an increase of nine percent over 2020 - however, data centers is only part of that business, with Macquarie Data Centres making AU$39 million (US$28), up by ten percent.
Elsewhere in Macquarie's portfolio, cloud services and government work made AU$$132 million (US$95m), up by a sizeable 21 percent, partially driven by government directives to move services from Chinese-owned Global Switch facilities
NextDC has 1500 customers
NextDC hit a milestone with 1,500 enterprise customers. In the past financial year, it added 183, ending the year with 1,547. It increased its total power usage eight percent to 75.5MW. Overall its AU$20 million loss was down from AU$45 million last year - but the reduction was largely due to deferring an income tax bill. The loss was mostly due to depreciation costs, the company said. Next year it expects to make AU$285 million to AU$295 million
“We are pleased to deliver on market expectations, with the company’s FY21 results coming in ahead of the upgraded guidance provided at the time of NextDC’s 1H21 results in February,” a statement from NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie said. “Today’s results are a testament to the company’s pursuit of excellence, against a more difficult economic backdrop due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.”
NextDC has completed the fit-out of its S2 facility in Sydney, taking it to 30MW installed capacity. The new S3 facility is still being constructed, and the first phase should be complete on target in the second half of FY2022, the company says. Beyond that, NextDC has bought land for a planned 300MW S4 facility.
In Melbourne, NextDC has added 9MW, and bought space to increase its M3 facility up to 150MW.
Meanwhile, Macquarie's IC3 facility increased its capacity from 10MW to 21MW. The company plans to continue developing IC3. The company has plans ongoing for a 32MW Intellicentre 3 Super West at the Macquarie campus, and opened its IC5, a 1.5MW secure government data center in 2021. It also opened its 10MW IC3 East facility in Sydney.
Australian Government departments, including Defence, are busy migrating their resources away from Global Switch data centers after Chinese steel giant Shagang took a controlling stake in the company. However, the move has proved harder than predicted, and the Government has moved the target for withdrawal to July 2022.
