Principal acquires Halton data centre for £41.5m
The 45,000 sq ft Babbage Centre in Runcorn has been sold by Dutch IT firm Getronics on a sale and leaseback agreement.
Iowa-based Principal Global Investors bought Getronics’ Halton data centre, located within Heath Park, for £41.5m, according to reports.
The acquisition is Principal’s second from its dedicated European Data Centre Fund.
In August, the investor bought AtlasEdge’s data centre in Barcelona for around £20m.
Principal and Getronics were contacted for comment.
A data centre is a facility used to store servers and other computer infrastructure. In recent years, the demand for this kind of facility has increased, outstripping supply.
This has forced rents upwards. A report published earlier this year by law firm DLA Piper on the booming data centre market found that 80% of equity investors and debt providers expected data centre rents to rise by 10% or more this year compared to 2021.
