Australian-listed Lendlease and an unnamed institutional investor have teamed up to invest US$1bn in data centres across Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Sydney-headquartered Lendlease will fund 20% of the joint venture, while the investment partner will fund the remaining 80%, according to Lendlease.
Tony Lombardo (image: Lendlease)
“A data centre platform is a strategic fit for the group, aligning with our targeted key trend of infrastructure, our telecommunications strategy and our integrated business model,” said Tony Lombardo, CEO Asia at Lendlease.
“This partnership will enable us to leverage our track record of project managing, designing and building data centres with the strong growth potential for this sector, which is evolving into a mainstream real estate asset class.”
The JV will target completed assets and new developments, with Lendlease taking on development, construction, property and investment manager responsibilities.
The Asia Pacific data centre market continues to expand, with colocation supply across the four tier I markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo totalling 1,119 MW in the first quarter of this year, according to CBRE.
The broker noted data centre demand was predominantly driven by large technology and global cloud corporates from the US and China.
One of the major challenges for international data centre operators looking to expand is the keen competition for industrial land and development properties.
Listed on the Australian stock exchange, Lendlease is a property and infrastructure group with operations across Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas.