Private equity firm GI Partners has sold its last remaining Fund 1 property, a data centre in Frankfurt, for USD28m to Equinix.
Private equity firm GI Partners has sold its last remaining Fund 1 property, a data centre in Frankfurt, for USD28m to Equinix.
Acquired in June 2004, the data centre comprises 310,000 gross square feet and 96,000 net square feet of raised floor space.
The transaction represents the final sale of the 25 technology buildings acquired by GI Partners in its debut fund. With this sale, the fund will have realized over USD1.0bn in cash proceeds from these buildings on an initial equity investment of USD280m. This represents a 3.7x multiple to invested capital and a 60 per cent gross IRR.
GI Partners contributed 21 of these properties to the formation of Digital Realty Trust, now a NYSE-listed Reit, with an enterprise value of approximately USD6bn. Other GI Partners Fund I properties previously sold include Sunset Gower Studios, located in Hollywood, and Yates Group, a pub operator with locations throughout UK.
GI Partners is currently investing out of its recently raised GI Partners Fund III, which has secured USD2.0bn of capital commitments from institutional private equity and real estate investors. Its most recent investment is a USD116m joint venture with Macerich in its FlatIron Crossing Mall in Broomfield, Colorado.
Rick Magnuson, executive managing director of GI Partners, says: ‘We are delighted to be announcing the sale of the Frankfurt Data Centre. The return we have delivered to date from our Fund I is well in excess of the market average and demonstrates the success of our investment strategy
‘As we embark on Fund III we are well positioned to leverage the success we’ve achieved from both our Fund I and Fund II investments. We are off to a great start in Fund III with approximately 20 per cent of the committed capital already invested and have a strong pipeline of opportunities.’
