Infrastructure manager Morrison & Co is understood to have been scanning the Australian landscape over the past year to find a passive infrastructure investor to buy Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation’s $2bn stake in CDC Data Centres.
As first reported by DataRoom, investment bank Barrenjoey is known to be working on a deal involving a sale surrounding the business.
While one of the existing owners may be keen to increase its stake, such as the Future Fund, the understanding is that Morrison & Co’s preference is that another passive fund comes into the business where it can also manage its interest.
Morrison & Co manages the business interests of Infratil, which owns 48.2 per cent of the asset whereas the Future Fund directly manages its own investments. The manager purchased CDC Data Centres in 2016 for about $1.1bn on behalf of Infratil and Commonwealth Super. In 2020, Commonwealth Super Corp sold half of its 48.2 per cent interest to the Future Fund.
Many observers believe that, based on strong demand for data centres, the entire business is now valued at between $NZ5bn and $NZ6bn, which would make Commonwealth Super’s stake worth about $2bn.
Helping matters is the $24bn price tag that Macquarie and other owners received for AirTrunk from buyer of the data centre giant Blackstone.
Meanwhile, the Morrison & Co-managed fund UTA is selling a 25 per cent stake in Perth Airport after other funds TIF and ART tried last year.
The other parties had a combined 9.14 per cent on offer, worth $700m through UBS.
The opportunity for other owners to buy the stake ends in a couple of weeks, perhaps 5.25 per cent owner AustralianSuper will step up to the plate.
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