131218 Global Switch completes a £400m equivalent capital raise in Sterling and Australian Dollars

Global Switch completes a £400m equivalent capital raise in Sterling and Australian Dollars

Release date: 18.12.2013

Global Switch, the leading owner and operator of large scale, multi-tenanted, carrier-neutral data centres in Europe and Asia-Pacific, has completed two further bond transactions in Sterling and Australian dollars, raising an equivalent total of £405m.  Global Switch issued its inaugural €600m seven year bond, in 2011.

With the assignment of a BBB credit rating from Standard & Poor's in November to complement the existing investment grade ratings from Fitch and Moody's, the company announced its intention to conduct investor meetings in Europe and Australia. On the back of the positive response to these meetings, Global Switch was able to build order books supporting the successful pricing of two bonds at the tight end of initial price talk:

  • A Sterling 350 million bond which matures on December 13, 2022, paying a coupon of 4.375%. Joint bookrunners were Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and HSBC.
  • An Australian dollar 100 million bond which matures on December 23, 2020, paying a coupon of 6.250%. Joint bookrunners were Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank and HSBC.

Proceeds of the transactions will be used to pay an exceptional dividend of up to £600m to Global Switch's parent company, Aldersgate Investments Limited.

John Corcoran, Executive Chairman, Global Switch, said "As a result of this process Global Switch now has a more appropriate long term capital structure. We have once again demonstrated our access to the deep liquidity of the international bond markets and were able to take advantage of a low interest rate environment to reduce our cost of capital. We were delighted to see such a positive investor reaction to the Global Switch credit in both the European and Australian markets and it was encouraging to see so many of our existing Euro bond investors participate in this latest fund raising".

Summary of terms and conditions of Sterling 350 million 2022 bond

Issuer Global Switch Holdings Limited
Issue ratings BBB (Fitch) / BBB (Standard & Poor's)
Pricing date December 4, 2013
Settlement date December 13, 2013
Maturity date December 13, 2022
Size £350,000,000
Coupon 4.375% annual
Re-offer spread G+180 basis points
Re-offer price 99.845%
Listing Ireland
Joint bookrunners Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC

 

Summary of terms and conditions of Australian dollar 100 million 2020 bond

Issuer Global Switch Property (Australia) Pty Limited
Issue ratings BBB (Fitch) / BBB (Standard & Poor's)
Pricing date December 12, 2013
Settlement date December 23, 2013
Maturity date December 23, 2020
Size AUS$ 100,000,000
Coupon 6.250 % semi-annual
Re-offer spread asw+225 basis points
Re-offer price 98.653%
Listing Not listed
Joint bookrunners Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bank, HSBC

 

For more information about Global Switch, please visit www.globalswitch.com


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Global Switch
Ali Ballantine
Group Marketing & Communications Director
+44 (0)20 8054 9053

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For press enquiries please email
press@globalswitch.com


編輯備註

Global Switch

Founded in 1998, Global Switch Holdings Ltd (Global Switch) owns and operates large scale Tier III* data centres that are carrier neutral and multi-tenanted. The Company's focus is on highly resilient, central, low latency, network dense locations in prime city centre locations and internet hubs close to its customers on the edge of financial and business districts.

Global Switch operates 290,000 square metres (3,100,000 square feet) of data centres across seven locations in Europe and Asia Pacific.

The data centre industry is benefitting from attractive market dynamics, characterised by growth in internet usage, combined with the expansion of cloud computing, outsourcing and regulation which have led to significant growth in demand from financial institutions, corporations and governments.

Global Switch is part way through a significant global expansion plan which started with an extension of its Singapore data centre in 2010 and the building of a second data centre on its Paris campus in 2012. Having secured pre-commitments from a number of large multi-national companies, Global Switch is nearing completion of the construction of an expansion to its Amsterdam data centre and is also constructing the first stage of Sydney East, its second data centre in Sydney.

The next investments in the expansion programme will be new data centres in Hong Kong and Singapore, where Global Switch is planning a second facility.

At financial year-end 31 March 2013, Global Switch reported total revenues of £340 million and total assets of £4.38 billion. Since 2007 the company has been wholly owned by Aldersgate Investments Limited, which first acquired an interest in the company in 2004.

Note:
* A Tier III data centre is an industry standard classification for a data centre composed of redundant power and cooling distribution paths, providing a minimum of 99.982% availability.

 

Disclaimer

This announcement may not be distributed, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan or any other jurisdiction in which such distribution would be prohibited by applicable law. This announcement does not constitute or form part of an offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for, any securities referred to herein, in the United States or any other jurisdiction nor shall it (or any part of this announcement) or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, or act as any inducement to enter into, any contract or commitment. Recipients of this announcement who intend to purchase such securities are reminded that any such purchase or subscription must be made solely on the basis of the information contained in any final form prospectus published in connection with any such securities. The transactions described above and the distribution of this announcement and other information in connection with the transaction in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and persons into whose possession any document or other information referred to herein comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons unless they are registered under the Securities Act or pursuant to an exemption from registration. No public offer of the securities mentioned herein is being made in the United States. Terms used in this paragraph have the meanings given to them by Regulation S under the Securities Act.

This announcement is not being made, and this announcement has not been approved, by an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as amended (the "FSMA"). Accordingly, this announcement is not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. This announcement is being distributed on the basis that each person in the United Kingdom to whom it is made available or at whom it is directed is (a) a person having professional experience in matters relating to investments falling within Article 19(1) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (b) a person within Article 49 of the Order or of the FSMA (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities will be made available only to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with such relevant persons. No other person should rely on it. This document is not intended for distribution to and must not be passed on to any retail client.

Any securities that may be (or have been) offered by the Company in, or into, Australia are being offered only as an offer that would not require disclosure to investors under Part 6D.2 or 7.9 of the Corporations Act 2001 of Australia (the "Corporations Act") and must not be (nor have they been) offered to persons who are a "retail client" within the meaning of section 761G of the Corporations Act.

Note:
A securities rating is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities and may be subject to revision or withdrawal at any time.