A newly minted Blackstone BX-N investment vehicle is aiming to raise slightly over US$1.7-billion in an initial public offering in the United States to capitalize on booming demand in the data centre sector.
Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, which will acquire newly built data centres, is offering 87.5 million shares, including 725,987 bonus shares, in the IPO at US$20 apiece, it said on Monday.
U.S. IPO activity picked up in April, with a surge in new filings signalling improving risk appetite and a growing pipeline that could sustain momentum in the coming months.
Artificial intelligence-linked companies have led the way, with data centres – which power AI workloads – emerging as particularly prized assets amid investor appetite for high-growth sectors.
“The U.S. IPO market is hitting on all cylinders right now. Big gains in recent deal flow related to AI and the energy revolution after strong earnings has been driving buoyed sentiment for the IPO asset class, hence more demand for deals,” IPOX CEO Josef Schuster said.
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Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, has invested over US$150-billion in data centre assets since 2018.
The latest vehicle, a real estate investment trust, will pursue data centres worth US$250-million to US$1.5-billion leased to investment-grade tenants, and has flagged US$25-billion in near-term deals in hubs such as Northern Virginia, Ohio, Phoenix, Maryland and Austin.
A Blackstone affiliate is set to buy shares in the offering, while IPO investors will receive bonus shares equivalent to 1 per cent of their investment as a sweetener.
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank Securities, J.P. Morgan, RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint lead book-running managers.
Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust will list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BXDC.”