DIGITAL Core Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit), through its subsidiary Digital CR Singapore 5, completed its acquisition of an additional 15.1 per cent stake in a Frankfurt data centre, the Reit’s manager said on Friday (Dec 6).
This brings its interest in the Frankfurt facility up to 65 per cent, from 49.9 per cent before. It followed an extraordinary general meeting convened on Wednesday to vote on the proposed acquisition after the Reit announced its intention to raise its stake in September.
The Reit did this by acquiring 15.1 per cent of the shares of the German joint venture Digital Greenfield that holds the Frankfurt data centre, and an equivalent percentage participation interest in a German loan facility.
The remaining shares in the German joint venture are held by the vendor, Digital Germany Holding.
The total acquisition cost was around US$76.6 million. This comprised a purchase consideration of 71 million euros (S$100.6 million), an acquisition fee of around US$751,000 paid to the Reit’s manager in the form of around 1.2 million newly issued Digital Core Reit units, and other fees.
The units paid to the Reit’s manager as part of the acquisition fee cannot be sold within one year from their issue date.
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The manager said the acquisition was funded by borrowings on the Reit’s multicurrency credit facilities.
Assuming that the acquisition and issue of acquisition fee units were completed on Jan 1, 2023, and that the Reit held a 65 per cent interest in the Frankfurt data centre through to Dec 31, 2023, the Reit’s pro-forma distribution per unit (DPU) would be US$0.0358, which is 3.2 per cent lower than its actual DPU of US$0.037 as at Dec 31, 2023.
Assuming the acquisition and issue of acquisition fee units were completed on Dec 31, 2023, the pro-forma net asset value per unit would be US$0.69. This is after adjusting for the Reit’s private placement of new units which closed on Feb 8, 2024, in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, and which raised US$120 million in gross proceeds, as well as its acquisitions in the first half of FY2024.
Units of Digital Core Reit ended Thursday flat at US$0.60.
