Temasek-backed ST Telemedia Global Data Centres explores over US$1b IPO: sources

ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), a company backed by Singapore investment company Temasek, is exploring a potential initial public offering (IPO) that could raise more than US$1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Singapore-based data centre operator has held discussions with potential advisers on an offering that could value the firm at over US$5 billion, the people said.

STT GDC is considering Singapore and the US among possible listing venues, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

A share sale could take place as soon as the end of this year if it decides to proceed, they added.

Deliberations are at an early stage and details of the IPO could still change, according to the people.

The company could also opt to stay private for longer, they said.

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A representative for Temasek declined to comment.

“As with many businesses of our size and scale, we are constantly exploring all options to optimise our capital structure, from attracting strategic and financial investors, bond offerings and to an IPO,” a representative for STT GDC said in response to a Bloomberg News query. “We will continue to concentrate on scaling our business and introducing new industry-leading sustainability technologies and will update in due course on our future capital plans.”

Should STT GDC proceed with a listing in Singapore, the offering would give a boost to the nation’s IPO market, which hosted only US$354 million worth of first-time share sales last year, down from US$1.06 billion in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The last time a company raised over US$1 billion through an IPO in the city-state was in 2017 when Netlink NBN Trust raised US$1.7 billion.

Alternatively, an STT GDC IPO in the US raising more than US$1 billion would be the biggest-ever first-time share sale there by a Singapore-headquartered company, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Internet giant Sea Ltd holds the record with its US$989 million US IPO in 2017.

STT GDC is one of Asia’s largest data centre operators, managing more than 170 facilities in Singapore, India, China, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and the UK.

Temasek fully owns Singapore Technologies Telemedia, the parent of STT GDC. 

Macquarie Asset Management bought a 40 per cent stake in STT GDC’s European unit Virtus Data Centres for an undisclosed amount, according a press release this week. BLOOMBERG