NextDC to raise $50 million for data centre fit out

Data centre builder NextDC has revealed plans to raise up to $51.39 million from investors to fit out its data centres and fund “growth opportunities”.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), NextDC said it had raised $41.39 million via an underwritten share placement.

It planned to raise an additional $10 million from existing shareholders under a share purchase plan that would conclude in late May.

NextDC said the capital raising round would “accelerate the fit out in various data centre facilities and associated costs, additional working capital, offer costs and strategic growth opportunities”.

The company launched its first facility in Brisbane last October, and planned to launch facilities in Melbourne and Canberra this quarter and in Sydney and Perth in the first quarter of next year.

In an investor presentation on Monday, before the capital raising round was announced, NextDC said it had spent a total of $116.6 million on those five data centres to date (pdf).

Costs included $7 million in real estate and $26 million for the fitout of its B1 facility in Brisbane and $28 million in real estate and $39 million for the fit out of M1 in Melbourne.

“A purpose-built data centre requires 12 to 18 months to construct and fit out,” NextDC told investors, highlighting plans to build second data centres in Brisbane (B2) and Melbourne (M2).

“Based on existing customer commitments and sales pipeline, we have started to explore suitable sites for B2 and M2 due to the data centre site selection and construction timeframes.”

“Data centres are capex intensive,” the company stated. “NextDC intends to fund its future growth program via [a] combination of equity, debt and capital recycling program.”

Friday’s capital raising announcement marked NextDC’s third capital raising round since it was admitted to the ASX in November 2010.

Capital raising rounds in April and August 2011 raised $47.2 million and $50 million respectively.

Shares closed about three percent down for the week, but remained stable between Thursday and Friday, when the capital raising plan was announced.