Property investor Segro could develop up to 24 data centres across the UK and Europe after raising £900 million in a share issue.
Segro will use the proceeds to develop its portfolio, and is eyeing the data centre market for growth. Much of its property is currently used for warehousing.
“We appreciate the support from our investor base for this equity placing and the confidence it demonstrates in our business,” said David Sleath, Segro chief executive. “In addition to the profitable growth opportunities within our development pipeline, we expect further exciting opportunities to emerge in the coming months which this additional capital will help us to deliver.”
Segro said that it could build up to 24 data centres with 1.2GW of IT capacity, constructed on vacant sites in its landbank, as well as existing facilities that have the potential for redevelopment.
Segro has already tested the data centre market with a series of investments at Slough. In December 2021, it paid £425 million for an office park opposite the Slough Trading Center, which it already owned, and merged the two to develop a cluster of data centres. In 2022, Global Technical Realty broke ground on a 40.5MW data centre at Slough Trading Estate, leasing the space from Segro, and in August 2022, Segro announced its application to develop a further data centre park in Thorney Business Park in Iver.
