AZ Quest is in the market to raise up to R$482 million for a new real estate investment fund (REIT) that aims to capture the accelerated growth of the data center market in Brazil.
The operation foresees the issuance of 4.82 million units of the AZ Quest Panorama Data Centers fund, at a subscription price of R$ 100 per unit. No additional allotment is planned, and the offering is conditional upon subscriptions and full payment of at least R$ 291 million.
In the prospectus, the management company states that the fund intends to acquire four real estate assets from Scala Data Centers , which will enter into a sale and leaseback agreement with the company for a period of 10 years.
The assets are Scala's data center in Fortaleza , along with its substation, as well as two other substations belonging to the company, located in Tamboré and Jundiaí, both in São Paulo.
According to the feasibility study accompanying the operation prospectus, the Fortaleza data center and its substation represent 60% of the operation's value. The assets are located in Praia do Futuro, through which 90% of the country's fiber optic internet cables originate.
The fund will have a fixed term of 10 years, extendable for a further 18 months. During this period, Scala will have three options to repurchase the portfolio ( call option ), at the same cap rate as the acquisition. In the 36th month, the company may exercise this option at the same entry cap rate , with an additional premium of 9%; in the 72nd month, with an additional 5%; and in the 120th month, without any premium.
The document indicates that, considering the R$482 million raised, the fund should present a net monthly return of IPCA plus 9.5% per year, considering redemption in the 120th month.
The investment comes at a time when Brazil is seen as one of the most promising markets for data centers, mainly due to its abundant clean energy supply and the advancement of digitalization, as well as the high demand from big tech companies for capacity to develop their artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
The Brazilian Association of Data Centers (ABDC) estimates that investments in the country should reach R$ 500 billion by 2030, driven by a pipeline of projects that promises to more than quadruple installed capacity, from 730 megawatts (MW) to 3.2 gigawatts (GW).
"The outlook for the coming years remains highly favorable. The expectation is that the growing adoption of AI solutions, coupled with the expansion of digital services and cloud computing, will sustain a robust, long-term growth trajectory for the data center market," says an excerpt from the AZ Quest study. "In this context, Brazil presents significant competitive advantages to capture part of this global growth."
AZ Quest has R$ 36.7 billion in assets under management, of which R$ 1.1 billion are in real estate strategies, distributed across 12 funds.
The period for collecting investment intentions is scheduled to begin on July 3rd and end on July 31st. Settlement of the offering is expected on August 5th.
The operation is being coordinated by XP Investimentos , with Banco Daycoval acting as administrator.
Contacted by NeoFeed , AZ Quest and Scala did not respond to requests for comment before the publication of this article.
