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Start-up to boost Aussie data centres
The pre-revenue capital raising of $400 million to fund large-scale data centres in Sydney and Melbourne is said to be the biggest undertaking of its kind by a start-up in the Asia-Pacific region.
Melissa Coade
Firms: Norton Rose Fulbright (AirTrunk)
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Deal: AirTrunk has closed a $400 million capital raising to realise its expansion plans for the Asia-Pacific region.
Value: A $400 million
Area: Finance
Key players: The NRF team advising AirTrunk on deal was led by partner Shane Bilardi. NRF partners Jyoti Singh, Jeremy Wickens, Jo Crew and Scott Millar assisted on the deal.
JP Morgan was the financial adviser to the transaction.
Deal significance:
Start-up AirTrunk’s recent $400 million capital raising follows plans to expand its coverage across the Asia-Pacific region.
The data centre developer and operator will use the money to set up two data centres in Melbourne and Sydney. The data centres are slated to open in the third quarter of 2017, and once operational will be among the largest providers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Sydney data centre will have a capability of 70MW and the Melbourne data centre will have a capability of 50MW, NRF said in a statement.
JP Morgan oversaw AirTrunk’s latest multimillion-dollar financing. JP Morgan said the transaction is the “single largest pre-revenue capital raising by a start-up in the Asia-Pacific.”
AirTrunk major shareholder and chief executive, Robin Khuda, contributed to the capital raising. He was joined by what NRF described as “two of the world’s leading special situation funds”, with reference to ING Bank and Natixis which have also committed a senior debt facility.
“We are delighted to have advised AirTrunk on this crucial transaction,” NRF lead partner Shane Bilardi said.
“While AirTrunk is a start-up today, it won’t be for long and it has a phenomenal future ahead of it.”
