By Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's HMC Capital will press ahead with the initial public offering (IPO) of its data centres business that would be worth $A4 billion ($2.64 billion), according to its regulatory filings on Monday (NASDAQ:MNDY).
The deal will aim to raise $A2.6 billion, the filings said, making it the largest deal in Australia since GQG Partners raised nearly $A1.2 billion in 2021.
HMC Capital said the DigiCo Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) would have 13 data centres in its portfolio and 586 customers.
Its assets under management will stand at about $A4 billion and HMC Capital would invest a minimum of $A500 million that would give it an almost 19% stake in the business.
The IPO comes after HMC said it would spend $A400 million to buy Australian data centre operating platform iseek. iseek will roll A$250 million worth of the purchase price into the DigiCo IPO, HMC said in the regulatory filing.
HMC recently bought the colocation data centre operator Global Switch (NYSE:SWCH) Australia for A$1.937 billion and the asset will be a key business in the DigiCo portfolio.
The iseek acquisition had helped push HMC shares up by as much as 4% to a record high of A$10.79.
HMC's regulatory announcements did not specify a timeline for the IPO but local media said the REIT should be listed on Dec. 16.
($1 = 1.5170 Australian dollars)