Goodman and Digital Realty Launch A$715M Bid for 9.9% NEXTDC Stake

Goodman Group and Digital Realty moved to buy up to 9.9% of Australian operator NEXTDC at a 45.5% premium to the previous close. The buyers offered A$9.50 a share through an aftermarket bookbuild, a purchase Reuters valued at about A$715 million (US$501 million) after reviewing the term sheet. NEXTDC's board called the move opportunistic and said the company had received no tFeatured: Ultra-wide landscape photograph of the completed NEXTDC M3 Melbourne facility showcasing the exterior facade and building scale.akeover proposal.

Goodman, an Australian property group that develops data centers, and Digital Realty, a US data center REIT, acted through a trust they own equally. The transaction is a purchase of shares, not a takeover. The trust sought shares from institutional investors only, and JPMorgan led the offer, according to Data Center Dynamics. NEXTDC owns and operates its own campuses, and the stake of nearly 10% does not change control. Goodman and Digital Realty told investors they have no intention of making a takeover bid at this time, but reserved the right to do so.

Reports differ on the value. Reuters first put the purchase at about A$650 million (US$453 million) and later at about A$715 million (US$501 million). Data Center Dynamics reported AU$715 million, or US$499.7 million. The A$9.50 offer was a 45.5% premium to NEXTDC's A$6.53 close on Nov. 4, and NEXTDC said it was not aware of the outcome of the share purchase.

"The share raid comes two weeks after NEXTDC's 21 October 2026 announcement of the M3 Melbourne power delay and revised FY27 guidance, and was made through an aftermarket book build open only to institutional investors," NEXTDC said in a statement. The board would consider any bona fide takeover approaches on their merits, the company said.

NEXTDC disclosed on Oct. 21 that an electricity network upgrade at its M3 site in West Footscray had been delayed, prompting the company to defer AU$140 million of customer revenue and cut its fiscal 2027 guidance. The upgrade would have doubled local power poles from 11 to 22 meters, and electricity provider Jemena is investigating safety concerns raised about the work. NEXTDC opened M3 in 2022, and the expansion would take the site from 60MW to 225MW.

NEXTDC then shelved new development projects and land acquisitions and said it would evaluate capital recycling, including potential sales of selected development sites. The company has 20 data centers in operation or development in Australia and sites in planning or under evaluation in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

NEXTDC shares closed 50.84% higher on Nov. 5, CNBC reported. Reuters reported the shares rose as much as 45.8% to A$9.52 earlier in the session, which it said would be NEXTDC's strongest intraday gain. The rebound ran against a sell-off in US data center stocks after Democratic midterm victories.

Baxtel tracks 61 data center sites in Melbourne, 10 of them under construction, and lists NEXTDC's M3 West Footscray site at 225 MW in total.

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