CEREIT separately announced that its sponsor Cromwell Property Group has entered into a strategic partnership with Stratus to invest in and manage the rollout of a data centre property platform across Europe and Asia Pacific through the new Stratus Cromwell Data Centre Fund (SCDC Fund).
Cromwell Property Group will be a cornerstone investor in the fund, which is targeting an eventual gross asset value of over US$1 billion ($1.39 billion), with 25% of the portfolio already identified by the first two strategic sites under exclusivity.
The sponsor of CEREIT will also source investment funding and subsequently provide joint fund management and asset management services upon the completion of each project.
The first project is a two-stage, 100-megawatt data centre in London spanning some six acres that is well-located on fibre optic routes in the east of the city. The centre will be powered by renewable energy.
The second project, which spans 34 acres in Frankfurt, is a multi-stage 300-megawatt project with advanced pre-leasing agreements and planning processes underway. It will also be one of the largest data centre campuses in Germany and Western Europe once completed.
“Data centres are a natural fit with our existing investment strategy and portfolio composition and we expect to realise attractive risk-adjusted returns for CEREIT unitholders from the partnership. The platform will also allow us to extract additional value through a number of potential future data centre opportunities in strategic locations within CEREIT’s existing 1.4 million sqm portfolio,” says Simon Garing, CEO of the Manager of CEREIT.
“The London and Frankfurt projects are just the beginning, with further projects identified in key gateway cities in Europe including Dublin and Milan, and in Asia, including Tokyo, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai. As a specialist ‘developer of developers’ in Asian real estate, EXS is excited to bring our network of regional local partners to the SCDC Fund,” says Eric Solberg, Chairman of Stratus and EXS.
As at 9.07am, units in CEREIT are changing hands 0.5 cents higher, or 1.2% up, at 42.5 Euro cents.
