Telecity/Equinix appoint Royal Bank of Canada to begin data centre sale

Here's a titbit on Telecity Group's £2.35 billion sale to US data centre giant Equinix.

I understand Equinix and London-listed Telecity have appointed advisers at Royal Bank of Canada to begin the sale of certain data centres in major European financial centres, including London.

This is because European competition regulators gave approval to Equinix's purchase of Telecity on condition that the companies sell eight data centres. According to Telecity's announcement in earlier this month, the potential data centres on the block are:

·     TelecityGroup's Bonnington House, Sovereign House, Meridian Gate and Oliver's Yard data centres and Equinix's West Drayton data centre in London;

·     TelecityGroup's Science Park and Amstel Business Park I in Amsterdam; and

·     TelecityGroup's Lyonerstrasse data centre in Frankfurt.  

It's not clear how much Equinix is expect to recoup from the sale of the data centres but in the statement the company said:

"In the nine months to September 2015, the assets to be disposed of contributed approximately 4% of the combined TelecityGroup and Equinix revenues for that period."

Equinix declined to comment.