Québec-based investment group La Caisse supported the offer with a $1bn binding commitment
Mallesons has guided ASX lister NEXTDC Limited on a $1bn wholesale offer of subordinated hybrid securities to finance the building of new data centres.
The hybrid securities are a 100-year subordinated debt instrument with a non-call period of five years. According to NEXTDC, they are expected to be tax deductible and classified as debt for accounting purposes; they will sit outside the company’s senior debt covenants.
Québec-based international investment group La Caisse is supporting the offer with a $1bn binding commitment. Per Mallesons, this underscores significant investor support for NEXTDC’s strategy and development pipeline.
“This transaction reflects the growing sophistication of funding structures supporting digital infrastructure and the increasing convergence between infrastructure and technology investment”, lead partner Andrew Maynes said.
Through the deal, NEXTDC secures flexible, long-duration capital to finance the building of new data centres. It will also be able to expand on its current capacity to scale its platform and meet rising digital infrastructure demand.
At present, NEXTDC operates 17 data centres in Australia and Asia. It is planning and/or developing 12 more sites.
“The announcement of the hybrid securities offer and the La Caisse commitment represent another step toward NEXTDC delivering on a material step-change in the scale of our business as we deliver on the company’s contracted forward order book across the period to FY29 and make further investments across the portfolio of new projects”, said Craig Scroggie, NEXTDC CEO and managing director.
The hybrid securities offer is being made to a group of institutional investors with an expected closing date of 23 April. Settlement and issuance will take place shortly after.
NEXTDC indicated that settlement relied on matters within its control or for which it has a high degree of confidence of satisfying on reasonable grounds. La Caisse’s allocation of securities will be established after the offer concludes.
Barrenjoey was the sole structuring adviser, lead manager and offer agent to NEXTDC. Cadence Advisory was the independent financial adviser.
Maynes received support from partners Phil Harvey and Yuen‑Yee Cho, special counsel Kat Tomasic and solicitor Georgia Weeden in working on the transaction. Partner Scott Heezen spearheaded the tax aspects with assistance from solicitor Fiona Pyliotis.
Partners David Friedlander and Amanda Isouard headed up the M&A team on this deal.
