Australia's DigiCo Infrastructure said on Wednesday it would sell its Chicago data centre for US$750 million to pay down debt and fund the development of its Sydney site, sending its shares soaring more than 25%.
Shares of the data centre landlord rose as much as 25.4% to $2.96, marking their strongest intraday gain in more than a year. The benchmark stock index was up 0.8%.
DigiCo, which was spun off from HMC Capital in late 2024 with 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 $360 million in cash proceeds after repaying asset-level debt, the company said.
"The asset sale at a premium... demonstrates the value of DigiCo assets, giving investors confidence to take its book value seriously," said Ben Richards, portfolio manager at Seneca Financial Solutions.
The sale will also boost DigiCo's liquidity to about $900 million and cut its pro-forma net debt to $500 million from $1.5 billion at the end of last year.
The CHI1 data centre facility in Chicago 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 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 forecast of $125 million, compared with $99 million a year earlier.
(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Roshan Thomas; Editing by Sahal Muhammed, Sherry Jacob-PhillipsA and Subhranshu Sahu)
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