London | 20 July 2018
CBRE, the world’s leading real estate advisor has provided commercial and technical data centre advice to AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets which, on behalf of its client AXA France, has acquired the remaining stake in European data centre operator DATA4, from Colony Capital, increasing AXA IM – Real Assets’ client’s ownership of the platform from 37% to 100%.
DATA4 finances, designs, builds and operates data centres. It currently provides a total of 27,100 sq m of net technical space and over 140 MW of available power. It operates 15 data centres across three sites in France, Italy and Luxembourg, including Europe’s largest and most powerful data centre campus, located in Paris.
CBRE was able to draw upon its industry-leading integrated data centre solutions group to execute a wide range of due diligence, which included an analysis of the mechanical & electrical infrastructure, maintenance programme, capex budget, building fabric, DATA4’s commercial business plan and data centre market analysis.
We are delighted to have advised AXA IM – Real Assets on such a high-profile transaction. We were able to quickly mobilise a number of data centre specialists from across both our Advisory & Transaction and Global Workplace Solution businesses to offer a comprehensive suite of commercial and technical due diligence to AXA IM – Real Assets.
Global data centre M&A reached record levels in 2017 and has continued into 2018. CBRE research shows that $25bn was transacted in 2017 alone, more than the four previous years combined. Significant growth in the sector, coupled with high barriers to entry, makes European data centres an extremely attractive asset class, which is enticing investors from across the globe.