The company, which owns subsea operator Aqua Comms and data centre company Verne Global, announced these figures this morning when it announced plans to raise £200 million on the London Stock Exchange.
That sum is on top of the £475 million Digital 9 has raised already in six months – £300 million through an initial public offer in March and the rest through a share placing in June. Digital 9 is chaired by Jack Waters (pictured), former COO of Zayo until its $14.3 billion acquisition in 2020.
Digital 9 has not detailed its plans for the new investment, except to say the £670 million pipeline “includes a further six data centre investments opportunities with an aggregate value of approximately £188 million”.
Those six include “a premier metro data centre based in the UK for which the company has secured exclusivity”.
In July Digital 9 announced plans to build the Europe Middle-East India Connect 1 (EMIC-1) cable, to be managed by Aqua Comms. It is due to be ready for service in 2022, but Digital 9 has not announced details such as partners, landing points or capacity.
The company’s share price went down about 5% on the announcement of the share placement this morning, from £1.15 on Friday’s close to just over £1.10.
“The company is targeting gross proceeds of approximately £200 million, which could be exceeded subject to demand,” Digital 9 said this morning.
“The net proceeds will be used to acquire further assets in line with the company's investment objective. The company has a current immediate pipeline of more than £670 million worth of investment opportunities.”
Digital 9 uses Triple Point Investment Management as its investment manager. Triple Point is run by Thor Johnsen, who is a director of both Digital 9 and Ontix, the small-cell company expected to be a later acquisition.
