Property investor Segro could develop up to 24 data centers across the UK and Europe after raising £900 million ($1.1 billion) in a share issue.
The London-listed business had initially been hoping to raise £800 million ($1.01bn), but on Tuesday evening its directors said strong interest from investors had caused them to release an additional 10 million shares. In total, over 110,000,000 new Segro shares have been issued.
Segro will use the proceeds to develop its portfolio, and is eyeing the data center market for growth. Much of its property is currently used for warehousing.
David Sleath, Segro chief executive, said: “We appreciate the support from our investor base for this equity placing and the confidence it demonstrates in our business. In addition to the profitable growth opportunities within our development pipeline, we expect further exciting opportunities to emerge in the coming months which this additional capital will help us to deliver.”
In a statement, the company said it could build up to 24 data centers with 1.2GW of IT capacity. These would be constructed on vacant sites in its landbank, as well as existing facilities that have the potential for redevelopment.
Segro hasn’t provided any details on the locations of these facilities, or types of data center it intends to build, but said: “The rental income from sites within the land bank has the potential to triple the £50 million headline rent currently attributed to this customer sector, with additional upside from redevelopment of the existing portfolio (which is not included within the development pipeline).”
The company said the development plans it has for its entire portfolio will require £3.8 billion ($4.8 billion) in capital expenditure.
Segro has already dipped its toe into the data center market with a series of investments at Slough, outside London. In December 2021, it paid £425 million ($570m) for an office park opposite the Slough Trading Center, which it already owned, and merged the two to develop a cluster of data centers.
In January 2022, Global Technical Realty broke ground on a 40.5MW data center at Slough Trading Estate, leasing the space from Segro, and in August 2022, Segro announced its application to develop a further data center park in Thorney Business Park in Iver, just six miles away.
Last year, Segro revealed it had purchased the Bath Road Shopping Park in Slough for £120.25 million (~$145m) with the potential to turn it into a data center campus.
