ASG data centre sells for $11.7mn
Thu 14 Aug 2014
Australian networks firm ASG has sold its Bentley data centre to Sydney-based Vocus Communications for AU$11.7mn.
ASG announced that it would use the money to speed up its debt reduction and help lower its overall debt to AU$10mn for the financial year 2015.
Identified by ASG’s board as a “non-core asset”, the Bentley data centre is located outside of Perth’s business district, and just 4km away from an existing Vocus data centre in Perth. The Bentley facility is known to be serving some of Australia’s biggest mining and utilities companies under long term contracts.
“While important to the workings of the group, it was recognised that the data centre would be better in the hands of a partner for whom data centres were core to their business. Vocus Communications is a leading telecommunications provider with extensive experience in operating data centres,” ASG released in a statement.
The networks company is expected to stay as a tenant in the data centre, and Vocus will become a main supplier to their telecommunications portfolio across Australia.
Chief executive at ASG, Geoff Lewis, said the opportunity to advance partnership with Vocus was part of the persuasion. He explained the sale would also help ASG offer increased services for its existing customer base.
ASG also reported in the statement that their unaudited full-year results had revealed positive organic growth, a strong cash position, as well as a second-half EBITDA margin in line with the first half.
With this acquisition, Vocus now owns and operates eight Australasian data centres – a collection which continues to expand. Group CEO James Spenceley said that the company’s acquisition strategy seems to be working very well for the firm:
“I think we’ve done really well at buying businesses and fixing what’s wrong with them — either because they don’t have enough capital or because of a shareholder dispute — and we’ve combined that with our brand that is synonymous with our leading customer service and high reliability in the telco industry […] so I think that combination works really well for us.”
