ICG Real Estate has closed its deal to buy a portfolio of Vodafone data centres from British Land for £125m, while simultaneously re-gearing the telecoms company’s leasehold on the properties.
ICG’s strategic real estate team has extended Vodafone’s lease for 25 years until 2048, and included RPI-linked increases to “enhance” the portfolio’s value.
The 260,000 sq ft portfolio comprises five data exchanges, predominantly located within Zone 1. The exchanges provide connectivity for Vodafone’s customers.
ICG Real Estate said digital infrastructure is a core investment focus, driven by rapidly increasing demand for data, broader digitalisation trends and new emerging technologies.
ICG SRE is a pan-European strategy that typically accesses its investments by way of long-term, index-linked and primarily sale-and-leaseback acquisitions.
Chris Nichols, head of strategic real estate at ICG Real Estate, said: “Working in partnership with Vodafone, we engineered a solution which secured its long term infrastructure while generating an immediate value uplift for our investors.”
Colliers acted as buy-side adviser to ICG Real Estate on the transaction, as well as for Vodafone in its lease re-gear for continued long-term use of the assets. Savills advised British Land.
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