NTT Data Centres Seeks to Raise $773M in Biggest Singapore REIT IPO in a Decade

Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp on Monday filed a prospectus with Singapore’s central bank for NTT DC REIT, aiming to raise gross proceeds of $773 million from the initial public offering of the SGX-listed data centre trust.

The Lion City’s biggest REIT IPO in more than a decade will see sponsor NTT take a 25 percent ownership stake as the trust’s largest unitholder, joining cornerstone investors led by Singapore’s GIC, with the sovereign fund holding the second-largest stake of 9.8 percent, according to the prospectus.

The REIT’s initial 90.7-megawatt portfolio comprises six properties valued at a combined $1.57 billion. NTT DC REIT enjoys right of first refusal with sponsor NTT Ltd, providing the vehicle with acquisition-led growth headroom and the potential to double its seed portfolio size over time, said Yutaka Torigoe, CEO of the trust’s manager.

“Backed by a portfolio of premium-quality assets with favourable operating metrics and diversified across key growth markets, NTT DC REIT is well positioned to capture growth upside while delivering sustainable returns to unitholders,” Torigoe said in release.

Targets Totalling 130MW

The REIT will give investors exposure to the world’s three largest data centre regions — North America, Europe and Asia Pacific — with three assets in California, one each in Virginia and Vienna, Austria, and a property in Singapore.

At the end of 2024, the occupancy of the seed portfolio stood at 94.3 percent, with a weighted average lease expiry of 4.8 years. No single financial year will see lease expiries in excess of 20 percent of monthly base rent over the next five financial years, the manager said.

Assets totalling 130MW in NTT’s global data centre portfolio have been identified as “high conviction” potential acquisition targets for NTT DC REIT within the next five years, according to the prospectus. Those assets could double the trust’s size and capacity to over 200MW.

If fully acted upon, the sponsor pipeline would contribute more than 2,000MW of additional IT capacity, potentially enabling NTT DC REIT to become the largest listed data centre REIT in APAC and among the largest in the world, the manager said.

NTT Global Data Centers president and CEO Doug Adams said the group would support the REIT in the long run with a portfolio of stabilised assets while continuing to reinvest in new developments through capital recycling.

“NTT DC REIT is a strategic pillar of NTT’s long-term capital strategy to scale our global data centre business,” said Adams, who also sits as a non-independent director of the trust’s manager.

7.5% Yield

The Singapore public offer is scheduled to run from 9pm Monday to 12pm on Thursday. NTT DC REIT has a forecast annualised distribution yield of 7.5 percent for the period of 1 July 2025 to 31 March 2026.

GIC’s fellow cornerstone investors, holding a combined 7 percent of the units, include Hong Kong-based AM Squared Ltd (investing through its AM Asia Strategies Master Fund), with that company’s compatriots at Viridian Asset Management also joining.

US investment firm Ghisallo Capital Management is part of the cornerstone group through its Ghisallo Master Fund, as are Toronto-based Hazelview Securities and Pinpoint Asset Management of Singapore.

Acting through its Singapore branch, UBS is also joining the cornerstone group as a custodian on behalf of some of its wealth management customers.