Principal Global Investors has acquired a data center in Cheshire in a sale-leaseback deal.
CoStar reports that Investment firm Principal acquired a data center from ICT firm Getronics for £41.56 million ($45.1m).
Dutch firm Getronics operates a UK data center in Runcorn within a building known as the Babbage Centre. The data center facility reportedly offers around 2,800 sqm (30,150 sq ft) of space. Getronics operates a total of seven data centers globally including in Milan, Italy.
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, located between Liverpool and Manchester.
This is the second acquisition Principal has made through its European Data Centre Fund. Principal closed a data center fund dedicated to acquiring European assets in February of this year, raising €155 million (then ~$175.8m). The company also said it recently completed the second capital raise for the fund, raising an additional €50 million ($49.7m) and bringing total equity investments to €205 million ($203.8m).
The fund’s first acquisition was a data center in Barcelona, Spain, occupied by AtlasEdge until 2033. Principal paid €22.6 million ($22.5m) to buy the 6MW, 10,500 square meter (113,000 sq ft) facility, which Atlas had bought from Colt last year.
Principal Real Estate began investing in data centers in 2007 and has committed more than $1 billion in data center acquisitions and developments while also owning more than $1.1 billion in data center REITs. Principal closed its first US data center fund last year, raising €471.4 million (then ~$534.7m).
Last month Principal partnered with Lincoln Rackhouse to acquire a data center in Atlanta, Georgia. The two companies have partnered on a number of data center projects, in 2019 acquiring colocation and managed services company Bytegrid together.
Last year, Lincoln sold a T-Mobile data center in Florida to a group owned by Principal Real Estate Investors.