GIC eyes Goodman Group data centre investment

Goodman Group, the industrial property giant, is attracting the interest of GIC.

According to Australian Financial Review (AFR), GIC dealmakers have been having discussions with Goodman’s internal deals team to come in as a co-investor on a part of its data centre portfolio.

No deal has yet been agreed, but one of the deal structures being considered would involve GIC tipping equity into a collection of Goodman data centres housed in an unlisted fund.

If confirmed, AFR said it would make the industrial property leader the second Australian-owned data centre business in 2025 to sign a sovereign wealth fund as a backer. Deals like this are common within the data centre industry as a way for developers to improve their investment returns.

Goodman Group has been developing its data centre capabilities since 2005 and has quickly grown to become a large owner of powered sites around the world. Its global power bank of five gigawatts (5GW) includes completed facilities, secured power and potential data centre projects across 13 major international cities.

Located in some of the most competitive areas, its data centres and sites have access to power and network connectivity.

Founder Greg Goodman said last week that data centres currently make up 57% of its US$12.9 billion development pipeline. Its goal is to build 5GW across North America, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.

The firm has already pledged $2.7 billion to build an investment consortium with international pension funds and investors. It was reported that it will own four existing Hong Kong data centres held by Goodman in an industrial partnership, with two data centres currently under development.

Goodman also said its portfolio accounts for roughly 30% of the data centre market in Hong Kong by power capacity.

It also has data centre partnerships with this structure in Japan and across Europe, having secured 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power capacity in Tsukuba City in Japan. In total, Goodman’s global portfolio reaches five gigawatts (5GW) of power capacity across 13 different markets.

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