NextDC smashes financial expectations

NextDC has blown past its own financial expectations with revenue growing 33 percent to $123.6 million over the year.

The data centre operator's revenue consists of $117.6 million in data centre services, which was up 32 percent, and the rest categorised as "other revenue".

Profit for the year ending 30 June 2017 was up to $23 million, compared to $1.7 million last year, which was the first time NextDC had produced a profit after six years of heavy investment in its data centres. EBITDA was up 76 percent to $49 million.

The co-location provider operates eight data centres across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth, and touts 772 customers on its books. NextDC said its channel network had grown to 350 partners, including some of the largest IT firms in Australia, such as Data#3, Dimension Data, Fujitsu, NTT, Telstra, Optus and Vocus.

This financial year, NextDC announced plans to build a second data centre in Sydney, which chief executive Craig Scroggie said came from a new customer that took its first Sydney data centre to 80 percent capacity.

"The B2 and M2 data centres are rapidly nearing the point of opening in record time, thanks to NextDC's continuous development methodology, and deep experience with construction and infrastructure supply partners," Scroggie said.

Scroggie said he was very pleased with the result, adding: "They demonstrate the company's continued strong growth with significant increases in contracted utilisation, strengthening EBITDA and a more than doubling of operational cash flow. Coupled with liquidity greater than $600 million, NextDC is in an outstanding position to take advantage of current and future customer opportunities."

NextDC is in the midst of a campaign to acquire Asia Pacific Data Centres, a property trust that owns three of its data centres, as part of its strategy to own more of the properties it occupies. NextDC already owns a 21.1 percent slice of APDC, but has offered to buy the remaining shares for an additional $172 million. NextDC's off-market offer ends on 15 September.