NextDC raises $33.6 million in funding round to expand, acquire property

Data centre company NextDC, the newest venture from former Pipe Networks chief Bevan Slattery, has completed a funding round of $33.6 million in order to pay for new property and equipment.

The company has come back to the market only three months after it completed a successful float on the ASX, raising $40 million.

The move comes after Slattery told SmartCompany last November that “the data industry is capital intensive and it’s harder to get money today… the banks don’t like to lend to data centres so much”.

NextDC announced this morning it had offered institutional and conditional share placements worth $16.8 million each, with Moelis and RBS Morgans taking part. The institutional placement will be completed on March 24, while the settlement for the conditional placement will take place on April 28.

The company also said it will offer up to $15,000 of shares to eligible shareholders through a share purchase plan.

The pricing will be set at $1.40 – 12.5% below the last closing price of $1.60, recorded on March 16. The company was put into a trading halt yesterday, but is expected to emerge from that today.

The price of $1.60 represents a 60% gain on the company’s initial share price of $1 upon listing in December 2010.

Approximately $12 million of the funds will be used for the purchase of a property in Sydney, while $23.6 million will be used for “additional expansion” at its existing properties, along with new growth opportunities.

The remaining $3 million will be used for costs and other working capital.

Last week NextDC identified a property in Sydney totalling 5,000 square metres, and also said it is exploring another site to cope with demand. It has also identified Perth and Canberra as possible growth areas.

Slattery, who has pumped $20 million of his own money into the company, said last year he expects the NextDC venture to thrive as demand for cloud-based and software-as-a-service applications grows.

The first site in Melbourne is expected to go live in May, with a site in Brisbane to go live this November.