CyrusOne amends $2.5bn unsecured credit facility
By Abigail Opiah Published: 14:23, 2 April, 2020 Updated: 14:23, 2 April, 2020 Other Diane Morefield, Chief Financial Officer, CyrusOne The amended agreement consists of a $1.4 billion revolving credit facility, which includes a $750 million multicurrency borrowing sub-limit, and term loan commitments totalling $1.1 billion.
CyrusOne (NASDAQ: CONE) has entered into an amendment to its senior unsecured credit agreement, extending the maturity dates and decreasing the interest rate margins applicable on the revolving credit facility and term loans.
The revolving credit facility has been decreased by $300 million, resulting in savings on the annual facility fee and reflecting the company’s enhanced access to capital as an investment-grade issuer.
The revolving credit facility matures in March 2024 and includes a 12-month extension option, which, if exercised by the company, would extend the final maturity to March 2025.
The term loan commitments consist of a $400 million term loan maturing in March 2023 and a $700 million term loan maturing in March 2025.
“This amended credit facility is another step in our ongoing efforts to maintain a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity,” said Diane Morefield, Chief Financial Officer.
Newsletter Time is precious, but news has no time.Sign up today to receive daily free updates in your email box from the Data Economy Newsroom.
“The pricing, terms and facility size reflect our status as an investment-grade issuer with ongoing access to the IG bond market, as needed.
“We will generate significant interest and fee savings under the amended credit facility, and we have effectively extended our bank debt maturities out to five years.”
“We want to thank all our bank relationships that underwrote this credit facility in the current challenging environment.
“We appreciate their support and believe the execution of this credit facility reflects their confidence in CyrusOne and our strategy , and the robust underlying trends for the data centre industry.”
The term loan maturing in March 2023 includes two 12-month extension options, which, if fully exercised by the company, would extend the final maturity to March 2025.
The credit agreement also contains an accordion that allows the company to obtain up to $1.5 billion in additional revolving or term loan commitments.
Read the latest from the Data Economy Newsroom: Citi, RBC Capital Markets takes the reins on $409m NEXTDC data centre deal
By Abigail Opiah Published: Updated: 13:07, 2 April, 2020 Other NEXTDC S3 NEXTDC has announced the launch of a fully underwritten $409 million (AU$672 million) institutional placement of new shares and a non-underwritten Share Purchase Plan.
Investment banks Citi and RBC Capital Markets launched the offer to fund managers on Thursday morning, and NEXTDC plans to accelerate the development of its Sydney data centre.
The company’s S3 Sydney data centre is located in Gore Hill, and is 8km from its S1 and S2 facilities.
NEXTDC launched a $409 million (AU$672 million) institutional placement on Thursday, worth 25% of its shares on issue.
It was reported that the offer was delivered at a 9.4% discount, and took place the day after NEXTDC shares hit a record high of $9.18, according to Australia’s Financial Review .
“Based on the strong customer demand and commitment we have received for S2 and our growing confidence in the forward-looking pipeline, we are confident that the projected demand in Sydney, together with our return expectations, warrants the next phase of investment in Sydney’s third generation of data centres,” said NEXTDC CEO, Craig Scroggie.
Newsletter Time is precious, but news has no time.Sign up today to receive daily free updates in your email box from the Data Economy Newsroom.
Australian data centre operator added that Phase 1 of the new development is underway, which will represent an initial IT load of 12MW.Practical completion for S3 Phase 1 is expected in 1H FY22.
“We continue to see significant demand for our data centre services during a turbulent market environment due to COVID-19,” added Scroggie.
“We have therefore made the decision to prudently equity fund near-term growth opportunities in this period of market volatility so we can continue to support customer demand and ensure there is no loss in the momentum of the Company’s development.”
The data centre company recently reported revenues of $63.9 million (AU$97.7 million ) for the half-year to 28th February 2020, an increase of 8% across the half.
NEXTDC’s FY20 half-year results, revenue from data centre services grew by AU$11.3 million to AU$95.4 million, a 13% increase.
Read the latest from the Data Economy Newsroom: Proximity Data Centres receives £25m funding for Edge infrastructure rollout
By Abigail Opiah Published: 12:33, 1 April, 2020 Updated: 11:04, 2 April, 2020 Other Proximity’s office in Wakefield Edge colocation Proximity Data Centres has announced new funding from ICG-Longbow, the real estate division of Intermediate Capital Group PLC.
The edge colocation firm was provided with an opening commitment in February of £25 million from ICG-Longbow’s £929 million partnership capital fund, ICG-Longbow UK Real Estate Debt Investments V SCSP.
Proximity Data Centres said that the new funding will be used to support its £80 million rollout of regional Edge data centres .
By working in partnership and with the financial support of ICG-Longbow, Proximity plans to offer Internet Edge colocation services from 18 regional data centres.
“In today’s hyperconnected world, customers are demanding services faster than ever before.Therefore, businesses need to have access to their data as quickly and seamlessly as possible,” said John Hall, Managing Director of Proximity Data Centres.
Newsletter Time is precious, but news has no time.Sign up today to receive daily free updates in your email box from the Data Economy Newsroom.
“By investing in a network of new Internet Edge data centres, we will empower our customers to keep up with these rising demands, equipping them with the tools they need to embrace changes in Industry 4.0 technology and thrive in today’s digital-first era.”
The company said the data centre service has been designed to offer colocation contracting for a range of its clients to meet the expanding need for Edge colocation space .
Kevin Crowley, Managing Director from ICG-Longbow, said: “We are delighted to partner with Proximity and further our track record in the data centre sector.
“The Proximity business model combines observed trends in data decentralisation across the more mature US and Asian markets, with a clear vision for the future of data in the UK; providing a cycle independent, long-term business with robust fundamentals – a key attractor to ICG.”
Proximity added that it is set to offer low latency and reduced transit costs from data centres reaching 95% of the UK population, through a network of regional data centre locations that are closer to where businesses operate.
Read the latest from the Data Economy Newsroom: Qarnot Computing raises €6m to boost R&D activity
By Abigail Opiah Published: 15:22, 31 March, 2020 Updated: 15:22, 31 March, 2020 Other Paul Benoit, CEO, Qarnot Computing Qarnot Computing has closed its Series B funding round at €6 million in a bid to accelerate the company’s future growth.
A syndicate of investors including Banque des Territoires, Caisse des Dépôts, Engie Rassembleur d’Énergies, A/O PropTech, and Groupe Casino, have invested €6 million in Qarnot Computing.
The company sells cloud computing capacity to its clients and uses the wasted heat generated from its computer servers to heat buildings and water sustainably.
Qarnot Computing plans to build distributed sovereign infrastructure, with the continued installation of QH-1 computer heaters, QB-1 digital boilers and QS-1 computing racks.
Othmane Zrikem, Chief Data Officer, A/O PropTech said: “Qarnot uses energy to run high-performance computing (HPC) while leveraging the heat generated by microchips to heat residential units and sanitized water in commercial buildings.
“It reduces the CO2 footprint of computer servers by 78% compared to traditional data centre solutions.
Newsletter Time is precious, but news has no time.Sign up today to receive daily free updates in your email box from the Data Economy Newsroom.
“As the need for HPC continues to grow in many industries (banking, pharmaceutical, 3D animation, etc) the market for Qarnot will grow substantially in Europe.
“At A/O PropTech, we are looking to invest in companies that intersect climate-tech and proptech.
In other words, companies enabling the decarbonisation of the real estate industry, of which Qarnot is an excellent example.”
The company said that the funding follows a period of product development and sales activity, resulting in Qarnot doubling its turnover over the last two years.
Qarnot accelerated its R&D activity in 2018 and 2019 in a bid to tackle climate change.
With the support of the syndicate of its investment partner, Qarnot can continue to accelerate the growth and diversification of its customer base, and the company revealed it will continue to focus on its in-house R&D, through a recruitment plan, with a particular focus on IT and commercial roles.
“This fundraising will enable us to take another step forward and accelerate our growth around our range of products and services that are already recognised and in-demand,” said Paul Benoit, President of Qarnot Computing.
“Our new investors share Qarnot’s vision, focusing on the highly strategic sectors of high-performance computing and energy efficiency in buildings .We look forward to working together, with the same values and the same desire.”
Read the latest from the Data Economy Newsroom: Blockchain Nation.The currency that is infiltrating the data centre sector
By Abigail Opiah Published: 17:48, 30 March, 2020 Updated: 17:49, 30 March, 2020 Other
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency began stamping its hypothetical feet and making noise in mainstream media over the last decade, with individuals taking a keen interest in blockchain and its link to banking and investment.Since then blockchain, the technology that runs Bitcoin, has developed into one of the biggest revolutionary technologies with the potential to impact every industry from data centres to the financial sector.
Abigail Opiah reports.
Blockchain first arrived on the scene back in 2008 when a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto released a whitepaper that explored the concept of a peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.With the launch of Bitcoin in January 2009, blockchain had its first real-world application.
Blockchain’s multiple strands created conversations that go far beyond its original purpose of a growing list of records that are linked using cryptocurrency.According to Vincent Barro, Vice-President Datacentre & Business Development at Schneider Electric, before peeling away at blockchain’s surface level to unlock its full potential, conversations around tokenization need to be had.Vincent Barro, Vice President Datacentre & Business Development, Schneider Electric
“When we talk about crypto, we need to talk about blockchain and tokenization, which are the main two technologies behind cryptocurrency.Crypto is huge in terms of banking, and you can see companies like Swisscom invest a lot in crypto which means that they want to take the lead globally on it,” he says.
“To be efficient with your customer, you need to have infrastructure and a presence in the cloud.This is extremely critical for blockchain because you are going to need the edge.
The blockchain business has been predicted to jump from 2.5bn to 20bn by 2025, thus the data centre needs to adapt to this new business strategy.With that being said, there are some challenges that relate to energy including modularity.
“I have a lot of demand from customers for modular solutions, which can be containerised solutions or something more local.On the other side, you’ve got this link with the cloud providers and major colocation data centres, which conjures the need for super-efficient solutions that leads to liquid cooling which is a big topic at the moment.”
Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data.
By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data.In one breath, the conversation led to all the tree-branches that stem from blockchain which puts conjures up the question of what is next for blockchain, will all the big technology players jump on board, and which regions will see the adoption of blockchain completely flourish first.
“What has been happening over the last two years is a lot of acceleration within Microsoft and Google to come to Switzerland.The usual situation in Switzerland was more about medium-sized colocators that do colocation business – but there are a lot of
“Google and Microsoft decided to enter the Swiss market through colocation, with Google communicating that it will enter the market via Green Datacenter AG.Green Datacenter was a small colocation provider, which became a major player in the last two years thanks to Google.
“The reason why these company’s feel it is important to be in Switzerland is because they want to be under the Swiss data protection legislation and banking applications.That is mandatory to attack the wall of finance and insurance.
“One point which is important but has not been finalised is that Amazon may move to Switzerland as well in the very near future.In terms of finance, this is important because of low latency.With this new ecosystem of data centres, these companies will have about ten milliseconds of improvement in latency which is huge when we talk about finance, and as the country is not very big, it has two interconnected points within an hour and a half between Zurich and Geneva.”
“This is because Switzerland has no specific hindrances that affect cryptocurrencies.
Switzerland’s Federal Council, the nation’s collective head of state and government, has announced it will commit to improving the legal framework for blockchain and distributed ledger technology companies.”
Newsletter Time is precious, but news has no time.Sign up today to receive daily free updates in your email box from the Data Economy Newsroom.
As the conversation steered towards tech giants, one instant ping in the brain was Facebook’s announcement of its very own cryptocurrency, Libra.
The cryptocurrency is a permissioned blockchain digital currency that does not yet exist, with only rudimentary experimental code being released so far, but it has been projected to be launched in 2020.
“At the moment, there are around 240 cryptocurrencies in the world, thus we see consolidation in this environment, which is set to grow more,” adds Barro.
240 cryptocurrencies are a lot of cryptocurrencies.
The blockchain sector has witnessed the birth of new alliances, Bitcoin and Ethereum survived the bear market, new cryptocurrency trading products and a plethora of blockchain protocols matured and expanded in growth.
Compute North’s President Marshall Johnson predicts that migration from China will continue in regards to blockchain and hash rate will continue to jump.His other predictions for blockchain is that there will be a continued evolution of the technology, and as a result, there will be further enterprise adoption, especially in financial services, supply chain and banking.
Lastly, he predicts that low costs will still win, previous generation machines will be dead this year unless there is serious price movement, and halvening will make some miners go out of business that have not upgraded their equipment.
In a halvening – also referred to as halving – Bitcoin rewards that go to the so-called miners that support the coin’s network drop in half in order to prevent inflation from eroding the purchasing power of the coins.
Marshall Johnson President, Compute North
“Since bitcoin has halved twice in the past, we can say that it has shown to be a major catalyst in setting off a new bull market era for bitcoin.As bitcoin halves and fewer are being generated, the increased scarcity leads to an increase in value,” says Johnson.
“The increased scarcity of bitcoin means only the most high-performing and high-efficiency mining operations will stand to see steady or increased profits following the halving.This makes outdated miners like the Antminer S9 nearly irrelevant without some sort of optimisation strategy to extend their productive life.
“This will drive many to upgrade to a more efficient miner like the Antminer S17, especially for large-scale operations.Utilisation of cheap energy and mining colocation should also be leaned on more significantly leading up to and in the wake of the halving in order to maximise profit in an increasingly competitive market.”
Like Barro, Johnson too identifies the link with blockchain and data centres, highlighting that there will continue to be high demand low-cost computing and storage, which will put pressure on the data centre sector to evolve and adapt.
“Worldwide data and computing requirements continue to grow rapidly.Blockchain and many applications are not mission-critical, require vast amounts of power and resources, and there is a trend to outsourcing these types of applications (IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Image Rendering, and Blockchain),” says Johnson.
“This opens the door for innovative solutions, like the Tier 0 data centre infrastructure that Compute North is developing and building.North America offers a unique blend of power resources, geopolitical stability, and reliable infrastructure that is appealing to mining operations.
“Although China recently reversed a two-year ban on cryptocurrencies, volatility and uncertain still exists in the region as government oversight of the sector appears to be in a regular state of flux.By moving some of their mining operations to the U.S., miners benefit from a more stable economic environment, the availability and mix of cleaner energy, stronger infrastructure and the advantages of an industry that is held to a higher standard.Diversifying operations is recommended to mitigate risk.”
Read the latest from the Data Economy Newsroom:.
