Keppel T&T Proposes Listing of Keppel DC REIT

 

Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation (Keppel T&T) has today issued a circular to Keppel T&T shareholders together with a notice of extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

Approval will be sought at the EGM, which will be held on 25 November 2014, for the proposed listing of Keppel DC REIT on the Main Board of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the SGX-ST).

Keppel T&T will also seek the approval of shareholders on a proposed divestment of Keppel T&T's interests in Keppel Digihub, Keppel Datahub 1, Gore Hill Data Centre and Citadel 100 Data Centre, and their proposed injection into Keppel DC REIT.

Keppel DC REIT's proposed investment strategy is to principally invest, directly or indirectly, in a diversified portfolio of income producing real estate assets that are used primarily for data centre purposes, with an initial focus on Asia-Pacific and Europe. The initial portfolio of Keppel DC REIT is expected to comprise eight data centre properties in Asia-Pacific and Europe: Keppel Digihub and Keppel Datahub 1 in Singapore; Gore Hill Data Centre in Sydney, Australia and iseek Data Centre in Brisbane, Australia; Basis Bay Data Centre1 in Selangor, Malaysia; GV7 Data Centre in London, the United Kingdom; Almere Data Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Citadel 100 Data Centre in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Keppel DC REIT will be managed by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel T&T, Keppel DC REIT Management Pte Ltd.

After the transaction, Keppel T&T will continue to look out for opportunities to develop data centre assets across its target markets of Asia-Pacific and Europe. Mr Thomas Pang, Chief Executive Officer of Keppel T&T said, "There has been a surge in demand for data centres, driven by a growth in e-commerce, cloud computing, and big data. Increasingly, these new generation data centres are also required to adhere to high environmental and security standards, areas which require significant knowledge and investment."

"The proposed listing of Keppel DC REIT is poised to capitalise on these trends and will benefit Keppel T&T shareholders as we continue to maximise our data centre business in a capital efficient manner," he added.

The proposed listing of Keppel DC REIT will be subject to, among other things, market conditions, the relevant regulatory and other approvals being obtained (including the approval of Keppel T&T shareholders) and the execution of definitive agreements by the relevant parties.