NextDC to raise $281 million for new data centres

NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie

NextDC is seeking to raise $281 million to help fund the purchase of sites for new data centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

The data centre operator’s equity raising will help purchase the sites for the planned S3, M3 and P2 data centres, as well as fund initial development work on P2.

P2 will have a 20MW IT capacity. Work on the new Perth data centre is expected to begin in 1Q19, with practical completion expected in 1HFY20.

NextDC said it was in “advanced negotiations in relation to several large customer opportunities”. The company said that as a result it had taken a strategic decision to plan for future growth and mitigate the risk it would run out of capacity.

“We are incredibly excited by the breadth and depth of these new investments that will further support the exponential growth of the digital economy in Australia,” said CEO Craig Scroggie.

“Over time these new infrastructure developments are expected to be the largest of their kind in Australia. These important strategic investments will extend our world class operation of Tier IV data centres across the Australian landscape.”

NextDC in October last year began welcoming customers into B2, the ASX-listed company’s second Brisbane data centre.