CapitaLand Ascendas REIT (CLAR) has completed the acquisition of its fifth data centre in the UK for a purchase consideration of £125.1 million ($159 million), based on an agreed property value of £119.4 million.
According to a company statement on Thursday, this is a high-specification Tier III colocation data centre facility situated in London.
“This acquisition… boosts our data centre investments in the UK by 54% to S$569.8 million, as well as increasing our exposure in London to 96% of our investments in the UK,” said William Tay, CEO and executive director, CLAR.
In a separate announcement, in early August, CapitaLand Ascott Trust (CLAS) said it plans to acquire three lodging assets, based in the UK, Ireland, and Indonesia, at a cost of S$530.8 million. Furthermore, the firm intends to raise at least S$300 million ($224 million) via an equity fundraising, to partially fund the proposed acquisitions.
CLAS is the largest lodging trust in Asia Pacific with an asset value of S$8.1 billion as on June 30, 2023. Serena Teo, CEO of the managers of CLAS, said: “Our accretive acquisition of the three prime lodging assets will enhance the quality and yield of CLAS’ portfolio. They are well-positioned to capture travel demand and the expected growth trajectory of these assets will continue to strengthen CLAS’ income streams”.
The acquisitions complement CapitaLand Investment (CLI)’s growth narrative.
CLI is working towards increasing its funds under management (FUM) to S$100 billion ($73 million) by 2024, up from S$89 billion in June 2023.
Simon Treacy, CEO, Private Equity Real Estate-Real Assets at CLI said the company plans to grow its FUM through its listed funds, lodging management, private equity real estate, and private equity alternative assets.
“From an asset investment perspective, to grow our private fund’s FUM, CLI will continue to focus on the Asia Pacific region with Singapore, China and India as core markets, and will remain opportunistic in other parts of the world like the UK, Europe, and USA, where we see compelling opportunities to leverage our capabilities and teams we have on the ground,” said Treacy.
CLI recently raised an additional S$1.3 billion from global institutional investors for three private funds—S$870 million will go to CapitaLand China Opportunistic Partners Programme (CCOP Programme); S$134 million will be for CapitaLand Open End Real Estate Fund (COREF), which is CLI’s flagship regional core-plus fund and, S$263 million will be for its new India business park development fund, CapitaLand India Growth Fund 2 (CIGF2).
CLI posted a 19% drop in net profit to S$351 million for the first half of the year ended June 30, from S$433 million in the year-ago period. The company attributed the fall to lower portfolio gains, high interest rates and a cautious dealmaking environment which slowed asset recycling transactions. The group continued to gain strong fundraising traction, attracting more than S$4 billion across its listed and private funds platforms.