NextDC heads into the Valley for AU$75m Brisbane datacentre
Australian-listed NextDC has secured space in Queensland's Fortitude Valley to build its AU$75 million Brisbane 2 (B2) datacentre, scheduled for completion late 2017.
The company told shareholders Wednesday morning that the AU$75 million includes the purchase of land, base building, and associated infrastructure to support an initial 1.5 megawatts (MW) of IT load.
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NextDC said it has every intention for B2's total capacity to reach 6MW, building on a site close to a major electricity substation.
The company set out to raise AU$120 million in November to fund the construction of both B2 and its second Melbourne datacentre, M2.
"Both B1 and M1 have proven to be highly successful facilities for the company in a relatively short period of time," Craig Scroggie, NextDC CEO, said at the time.
"We are confident that the ongoing demand in these geographies, together with our return expectations warrants this next phase of investment in markets we know well."
Previously, NextDC said the M2 facility will initially contain 2MW of capacity, with the intended capacity to be 25MW. The company also said both M2 and B2 were to be up and running by the end of 2016.
NextDC's B1 datacentre is nearing full capacity, with M1, the first of its Melbourne facilities, sitting at 77 percent utilisation, based on contracts known as of the end of October 2015.
For the first half of the financial year, NextDC reported revenue of AU$42.1 million, up 51 percent to from last year's AU$28 million.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 279 percent to AU$11.4 million, while the company's statutory net profit made a positive return of AU$0.6 million, compared to the net loss of AU$5.8 million in 1H15.
The results indicated that a majority of total revenue was from its datacentre services revenue, which increased by 55 percent during the six-month period to AU$41.3 million.
During the half year, NextDC inked a AU$1.79 million "critical and sensitive" three-year deal with the Australian government, and signed a five-year contract with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC), a AU$1.4 million deal that included the relocation of the AEC's critical IT infrastructure.