Bird & Bird's Real Estate team in London recently advised Cardiff Data Investments Limited (CDIL) on the sale of a data centre in the Welsh capital to Singapore-based company Keppel DC REIT Management, for a sale price of £34 million ($42m or S$58m).
CDIL (a vehicle owned by hotel entrepreneur Jonathan Raymond) purchased the data centre out of receivership in January for £25 million and Bird & Bird acted for the purchaser in that transaction.
The facility is one of BT's main UK data centres and comprises three data halls capable of holding an estimated 12,000 servers. The power is supplied by two separate diverse resilient 11kV feeds each rated at 12MW.
When purchased, the site was wholly let to BT and the lease had just over three years of the term remaining. The lease was regeared in the summer and the site has now been sold to Keppel - a Singaporean company that specialises in marine, property and infrastructure businesses.
Bird & Bird simultaneously exchanged and completed the investment sale of the data centre on 6 October 2016 on behalf of CDIL.
The team was led by London partner Ben Henry with assistance from associate James Bradbury. James also worked with Ben on the lease regear, with Legal Director Andrew Stobbart assisting on the purchase in January.
Ben commented: "We are very pleased to have acted for Cardiff Data Investments on the acquisition of this asset from receivers, the regear of the lease and the investment sale to Keppel. This high profile deal showcases our all-round data centre expertise, and I'd like to thank the Bird & Bird team for their work."
