Digital Realty Trust has announced that it has entered into a definitive share sale and purchase agreement to acquire a three-property data centre portfolio located in the greater London area, referred to as the Sentrum Portfolio.  The Sentrum Portfolio comprises approximately 761,000 sq ft across three data centres located in Woking, Watford and Croydon.

The purchase price of the Sentrum Portfolio will be approximately £715.9 million, equivalent to US$1.1 billion, subject to adjustment in limited circumstances and to additional earn-out payments based on a multiple of the net operating income from the lease-up of currently vacant space in the portfolio in the next three years.

The Company expects to fund the purchase price and related earn-out payments with available cash, borrowings under the Company's global revolving credit facility, a bridge loan facility and/or the sale of debt or equity securities. Subject to various closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close on or about July 31, 2012 and may be shortened or deferred in limited circumstances.

"We believe the addition of these high quality, mission critical facilities to our operating portfolio will enable us to serve a wide variety of customers seeking institutional quality data centre space in London, a highly strategic global data centre market," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty.  

"The portfolio is approximately 80% leased to a diverse roster of 21 tenants, including leading multinational financial institutions and global network providers, with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 8 years," said Scott Peterson, Chief Acquisitions Officer for Digital Realty. "In addition to the stable in-place income, there is a significant value-add opportunity to lease the balance of the portfolio's available space."

"We expect this transaction to be accretive to our 2012 Core FFO on a diluted per share and unit basis upon closing, excluding one time acquisition and financing costs, and plan to provide updated guidance for the year in our second quarter 2012 earnings announcement," added A. William Stein, CFO and Chief Investment Officer of Digital Realty.