Digital Realty Acquires Three-Property Data Center Portfolio In Paris For $79.7M

By Adriana Pop, Associate Editor

Paris—Digital Realty Trust Inc. has acquired a three-property data center portfolio in the Paris area for EUR 60 million, or about $79.7 million. The seller was Bouygues Telecom, France’s third largest telecommunications operator.

Consisting of one Tier III+ facility at Montigny-le-Bretonneux and two Tier III facilities in Bievres and Saclay, the portfolio totals approximately 87,000 rentable square feet, with nearly five megawatts of IT capacity.

The transaction is structured as a sale-leaseback deal, with Bouygues Telecom signing long-term, triple net leases with Digital Realty for all three properties. Bouygues Telecom will continue to operate and maintain the facilities, which represent its core infrastructure assets.

“The acquisition of this institutional-quality portfolio further expands our footprint in this key European market and, equally important, adds a new network and IT service provider to our global customer base,” said Michael F. Foust, chief executive officer of Digital Realty.  “We are very pleased to welcome Bouygues Telecom to our portfolio and look forward to continuing to work with them to support their future data center requirements.”

San Francisco-based Digital Realty is a provider of customer driven data center solutions. Its portfolio is located in 32 markets throughout Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. As of October 26, 2012, the company’s properties comprise approximately 21.2 million square feet, including 2.2 million square feet of space slated for redevelopment.

In July 2012, Digital Realty has completed another major transaction in Europe with the acquisition of the three-property Sentrum Portfolio in the greater London area. The sale included approximately 761,000 square feet across three data centers located in Woking, Watford and Croydon. The purchase price was 715.9 million pounds Sterling (equivalent to $1.1 billion based on the July 11, 2012 exchange rate of 1.00 pound to $1.55).

“We’re very pleased to have established a long-term strategy for our infrastructure assets with a leading global provider of data center solutions,” said Richard Viel, deputy chief executive officer of Bouygues Telecom. “Digital Realty’s global portfolio, financial strength and proven long-term investment philosophy provides the stable operating environment we were seeking to continue to grow our business in France.”