EQUINIX MOVES FROM TENANT TO OWNER

Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT), a Singapore-listed real estate company, has entered into an agreement with Equinix Singapore Pte. Ltd., to sell its data center property located at 26A Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore.

The proposed sale price of the seven-story data center property is S$125 million (US$91 million). The facility which has a total gross floor area of about 385,000 square feet, was developed by MIT as a build-to-suit data center, and fully leased to Equinix in 2015. However, the 30-year Lease Agreement provides an option of purchasing this Singapore facility which Equinix code-named SG3.

Representing a 23.3% premium over the development cost of S$101.4 million (US$74 million), the sale price of S$125 million takes into consideration the latest available valuation of the Property as at 31 March 2020 by Savills Valuation and Professional Services Pte. Ltd. As announced, this Singapore data center property contributed about 2.2% to MIT’s portfolio gross revenue in the financial year ended 31 March 2020.

Upon signing of the sale and purchase agreement, Equinix is said to have given a deposit equivalent to 5% of the property sale price to the designated Trustee. The balance sum is to be paid also in cash and will be given on completion of the transaction, which is expected to take place by Q4 2020, and subject to approval by JTC Corporation – the government agency in Singapore that oversees industrial development.

This announcement is coming barely a week after Equinix announced its acquisition of the India operations of GPX Global Systems Inc. (GPX India) in an all-cash transaction that is valued at US$161 million. This deal gives Equinix the ownership of a fiber-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centers, adding about 1,350 cabinets to the company’s Asia-pacific and global portfolio.

In Singapore, Equinix operates four data centers (SG1, SG2, SG3 and SG4) after launching the latest in March, a converted seven-story building located in Tai Seng Industry Estate.