Agreement Reached for the Sale of Global Switch Australia to HMC Capital
- Transaction allows Global Switch to fully realise the value of its historic economic interests in Global Switch Australia.
- Generates substantial capital available for Global Switch to further pursue ambitious growth opportunities in new and existing markets.
- Transaction closing conditional on customary regulatory and lender approvals.
- Global Switch expects to retain strong investment grade credit ratings.
London, 24 October 2024 – An agreement has been reached for the sale of Global Switch Australia Holdings Ltd (“GSAH”) for A$2.12 billion to HMC Capital. The transaction enables Global Switch Holdings Limited (“Global Switch” or the “Company”) to fully realise the value of its historic economic interests in Global Switch Australia. The transaction represents a significant first step in the Company’s capital raising for future growth.
Since December 2016, GSAH has operated as a separate, standalone business, with Global Switch maintaining its historic economic interests in the business. Global Switch expects the deal to close in late 2024 or early 2025 – following the receipt of customary regulatory approvals in Australia.
Global Switch is a world-leading owner, operator and developer of large-scale data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The proceeds of this transaction will strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and provide substantial further capital for Global Switch to capitalise on significant growth opportunities presenting themselves in other prime geographies through redevelopment, the integration of the latest cooling technologies, and the building of new data centres to meet burgeoning AI and high performance computing (HPC) demand.
Global Switch provides high density, low latency IT capacity, expertise and the latest technological solutions on a flexible basis to leading technology organisations across the key markets of Europe and Asia-Pacific, including the Company’s existing Tier 1 markets of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Driven by strong customer demand, Global Switch has performed strongly in the year-to-date, capitalising on the growth of AI/HPC and meeting customer demand through its ongoing redevelopment, power densification and growth programs.
The transaction follows a number of recent deals within the global data centre market and delivers compelling economics to Global Switch. Global investors are drawn to the criticality of the data centre industry and its exposure to the growth of the most cutting-edge technologies, such as AI/HPC. Demand for data centre capacity continues to outstrip supply, particularly in the prime locations where Global Switch’s sites can be found.
Global Switch remains committed to maintaining strong investment grade credit ratings and expects these to be retained following the transaction. Consent to the transaction is required from Global Switch’s Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) and Term Loan banks, which is expected to be forthcoming, whilst GSAH and its subsidiary companies will cease to be guarantors of Global Switch’s bonds maturing in 2027 and 2030 and its RCF, all of which are otherwise unaffected by the transaction.
Ashley Muldoon, CEO of Global Switch, said: “The proceeds from the sale of our historic economic interests in GSAH will enable us to accelerate our ambitions to meet the demand for data centre capacity in our critical hubs around the world, and to continue to ensure that our customers’ needs are met as demand increases for AI and high performance computing deployments.”