Philippine telco PLDT is exploring a data center Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).

PLDT confirmed in a stock exchange announcement last week that its board of directors has approved the company’s pursuit of a potential listing of a REIT that is expected to initially include stabilized, income-generating data center assets under Vitro, its data center subsidiary under ePLDT.

“The proposed Vitro REIT is intended to provide a platform to unlock value from the PLDT Group’s stabilized digital infrastructure assets, broaden investor access to the country’s growing digital infrastructure sector, and create a long-term and sustainable capital recycling platform that can support the continued expansion of Vitro’s data center portfolio,” the company said.

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.

PLDT said the final terms and final asset portfolio have not been determined and remain subject to further evaluation, due diligence, transaction structuring, etc.

Local press report the company is exploring seeding the REIT with eight facilities totaling 27MW and valued between $600 million and $800 million.

Other assets, including the company’s 50MW Santa Rosa facility, may be added to the REIT later once stabilized. The REIT could be listed by the end of the year.

Vitro was established as a subsidiary of ePLDT in 2000, which in turn is the ICT subsidiary of PLDT. As well as Santa Rosa, the company has ten other operational data centers with a combined IT capacity of 63MW, with cable landing stations in Deat, Digos, La Union, and Batangas.

Elsewhere, PLDT has plans for a 100MW facility in General Trias, a city south of Manila.

PLDT had been looking for a minority investor for its data centers for some time. The likes of CVC Capital Partners, Japanese telco NTT, and others had been named as potential suitors before those plans were dropped last year.

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. Blackstone is also setting up its own data center REIT.