DigiCo REIT in tepid debut after marking Australia’s greatest IPO in six years

By Sameer Manekar

(Reuters) -Shares in DigiCo Infrastructure REIT, a knowledge centre landlord and operator, hovered round their IPO value on Friday – a subdued debut after marking Australia’s greatest itemizing in six years.

DigiCo, whose IPO raised A$2 billion ($1.3 billion), was buying and selling at A$4.935 within the afternoon, a bit under the A$5.00 supply value. It rose to A$5.10 earlier within the day.

The itemizing of the HMC Capital agency underscores rising investor urge for food for information centres within the Asia-Pacific area pushed by the demand for synthetic intelligence-based providers.

That stated, its lacklustre debut additionally alerts some concern concerning the wealthy valuations that latest information centre offers have commanded.

Morningstar final month gave DigiCo a ‘excessive uncertainty score with a good worth estimate of A$3.40 per share. Its supply value assumes excessive charges of return, stated analyst Roy van Keulen, including that this was unlikely or unlikely to persist given the aggressive nature of the business.

DigiCo manages an A$4 billion portfolio of knowledge centres throughout the U.S. and Australia. It has stated it’s going to use a part of the IPO proceeds to purchase two large-scale adjoining information centre websites close to Sydney with a contracted capability of 20 megawatts.

Asset supervisor HMC Capital, based by banker-turned-investor David Di Pilla, retains an 18.2% stake in DigiCo.

The sector has seen a lot exercise in Australia this yr. A Blackstone-led consortium purchased information centre agency AirTrunk in a take care of an implied enterprise worth of A$24 billion, whereas NextDC launched a capital elevating through fairness of A$750 million and has sought to boost A$2.9 billion through debt. Pension big AustralianSuper has additionally made billion-dollar investments within the sector.

Howard Penny, co-head of actual property analysis at Citi, was optimistic concerning the sector’s prospects, saying there was an “engaging structural progress alternative for funding into information centres in Australia and globally pushed by the rise of synthetic intelligence, autonomous automobiles, and better demand for data storage”.

($1 = 1.5733 Australian {dollars})