London: Segro to develop new data centers after £900 million share issue

Property investor Segro has raised £900 million ($1.1 billion) in a share issue and intends to use this funds to develop its portfolio across the UK and Europe. The London-listed business had initially been hoping to raise £800 million ($1.01bn), but on Tuesday evening its directors said strong interest from investors had caused them to release an additional 10 million shares

David Sleath, Segro chief executive, said: “We appreciate the support from our investor base for this equity placing and the confidence it demonstrates in our business. In addition to the profitable growth opportunities within our development pipeline, we expect further exciting opportunities to emerge in the coming months which this additional capital will help us to deliver.”

The company noted in a statement that it could build up to 24 data centers with 1.2GW of IT capacity. These would be constructed on vacant sites in its landbank, as well as existing facilities that have the potential for redevelopment.