May 6 (Reuters) – Australia’s DigiCo Infrastructure said on Wednesday it will sell its CHI1 data centre facility in Chicago for $750 million to pay down its debt and fund the development of its Sydney site, sending shares of the data center landlord up 19%.
Shares of the firm jumped as much as 18.64% to A$2.8, marking their strongest intraday rally in seven months.
DigiCo Infrastructure, which spun off from HMC Capital in late 2024 with a A$2 billion IPO, said it struck a deal with a North American fund manager with “vast experience in data centres,” but did not name the buyer.
The sale represents a near 5% premium to the November 2024 acquisition price, and will unlock about A$360 million in cash proceeds after repaying asset-level debt, the company said.
It will also boost DigiCo’s liquidity to about A$900 million and cut its pro-forma net debt to A$500 million, from A$1.5 billion at the end of last year.
“The release of capital from CHI1 provides additional financial flexibility and capacity to accelerate the delivery of the SYD1 development program (in Sydney),” Interim Chief Executive Officer Chris Maher said.
The Chicago facility has a capacity of 32 megawatts and is leased to a major hyperscale customer under a 15-year agreement, according to the company’s website. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
DigiCo said it plans to consider capital management measures, including returning excess cash to investors through higher distributions in the near-term, supported by proceeds from U.S. asset sales and lower debt levels.
Separately, it also said it was weighing monetisation options for its LAX1 and LAX2 Los Angeles sites, after withdrawing its application in April for a data centre at LAX1, citing uncertainty over planning approval.
The data centre operator reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 underlying operating earnings guidance of A$125 million, compared with A$99 million a year earlier.
($1 = 1.3926 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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