Cromwell Property Group has put its plans for a $1 billion data center fund on hold.
The Brisbane-based fund manager Cromwell launched a fund with Stratus Data Centres last year with the goal of expanding into sites in Europe and APAC. The fund had two sites earmarked as “seed properties” – a data center in London, UK, and a campus in Frankfurt, Germany with a combined capacity of around 400MW.
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Cromwell’s controversial data center fund paused
However, the fund has reportedly been parked after efforts to secure renewable energy to power the sites were frustrated, according to the Australian Financial Review. The two sites were already in development by Stratus – part of the EXS Capital Group private equity fund – when Cromwell announced the fund, and Stratus still has the locations listed on the company’s site.
“The original structure that we were investigating is not going to meet our requirements but the asset class itself is of interest to a lot of our capital partners. We’ll continue to see what we can do in that space,” acting chief executive Michael Wilde told the Australian Financial Review.
Cromwell has more than 200 properties in its portfolio totaling $11.6 billion in value across Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Its European REIT portfolio consists of nearly 100 properties across seven European countries (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland). The company mostly deals in offices and warehouses, but does include the Hørskætten 5 data center in Denmark.
The group's movement into the data center space caused upset with some shareholders last year, partly due to its lack of previous involvement in the space.
“ARA is appalled to discover that Cromwell has recently committed to allocate significant security-holder funds to invest in data centers, a sector in which Cromwell has no expertise,” a spokesperson for ARA Asset Management said during hostile takeover bid in an attempt to place an ARA representative on the Cromwell board.
