Principal® European Data Centre Fund completes first acquisition

The first acquisition of the Fund was of a 6 mega-volt ampere (MVA), 10,502 square metre data centre in Barcelona, Spain, leased to AtlasEdge until August 2033. The asset was acquired for €22.6 million. The vendors were represented by Savills.

The asset is located in a rapidly growing data centre market, servicing the large metropolitan area of Barcelona, and is leased to Europe’s fastest growing and leading-edge data centre provider.

The second capital raise for the Fund closed at the end of June and added an additional €50 million of equity to the Fund, bringing the total amount of equity raised to €205 million.

Paul Lewis, director of European data centres, Principal Real Estate, comments: “With the launch of the European Data Centre Fund earlier this year, securing the Fund’s first acquisition is a major milestone. The off-market acquisition of the AtlasEdge data centre in Barcelona provides our Fund with an asset let on a triple net lease to a first-rate and rapidly growing operator in a key city which is experiencing substantial growth of demand for data centre services. With the second close reaching €205 million, we believe we are in a strong position to achieve our goals for the final close and to continue executing on our acquisition plans across Europe.”

The Fund continues to focus on manage-to-core data centre assets. At least 60% of the Fund will be allocated to the core European markets of Germany, Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, and Ireland, with up to 40% in other European markets such as Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.