NextDC seeks capital for second Sydney data centre

NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie at S1

NextDC is seeking to raise $150 million to fund a second Sydney data centre. The ‘data centre as a service’ provider went into a trading halt yesterday ahead of today’s capital raising announcement.

The new S2 data centre will have a target capacity of 30MW, more than double S1’s capacity, NextDC said. Practical completion is expected in the first half of FY18.

The data centre operator said that a “major international customer” had taken an additional 1.5MW capacity at S1, increasing the facility’s pro forma contract utilisation to 82 per cent of capacity.

“S1 has proven to be highly successful for the company in a relatively short timeframe. We are confident that the demand in Sydney, together with our return expectations, warrants the next phase of investment,” NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie said in a statement.

The company is currently developing two other new data centre sites: A second Brisbane facility (B2) and a second Melbourne data centre (M2).

Those two new data centres will eventually add 31MW of IT load capacity to NextDC’s string of facilities. Practical completion of the two data centres is expected in the second half of FY17.

NextDC announced revenue of $92.8 million for the year ending 30 June, reporting its first net profit — $1.8 million, compared to a net loss of $10.3 million in FY15.