BlackRock and IFM enter exclusive talks for Stack's $25 billion Asia Pacific data centers

BlackRock Inc. and IFM Investors Pty have entered exclusive negotiations to acquire Stack Infrastructure Inc.'s Asia Pacific data center portfolio for approximately $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would transfer 14 operating facilities across six markets—Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Seoul, Mumbai, and Jakarta—plus 8 development sites staged for 2027-2029 delivery. Stack's Asia Pacific book generated $1.83 billion in annualized revenue as of June 2026, with 87% contracted to hyperscaler tenants under power-indexed leases averaging 9.2 years remaining.

The consortium structure allocates 62% equity to BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners IV and 38% to IFM's Global Infrastructure Fund. Financing includes $9.8 billion in senior debt arranged by Goldman Sachs and Barclays, priced at SOFR plus 215 basis points, and $2.4 billion in mezzanine notes held by Ares Management and Apollo Global Management at 8.75% annual. The acquisition values Stack's Asia Pacific operations at 13.7 times trailing EBITDA, a 23% premium to the 11.1 times median for recent regional data center trades. Exclusive talks entered their final phase September 18. Binding documentation is expected by October 12, with regulatory filings in Australia, Japan, and Singapore to follow within 72 hours of signing.

The transaction extends BlackRock's infrastructure positioning into constrained power markets where hyperscaler capex is accelerating faster than grid capacity. Tokyo and Singapore rack supply sits at 4.1% and 2.8% vacancy, respectively, while power availability for new builds has stretched procurement timelines to 31 months in Tokyo and 27 months in Singapore. Stack's development pipeline includes 680 megawatts of reserved grid capacity across its eight sites, with 340 megawatts in Tokyo's Inzai district and 180 megawatts in western Sydney's Kemps Creek precinct. Both locations hold signed interconnection agreements with local utilities, removing the primary bottleneck for 2027-2028 delivery. IFM brings operational oversight through its existing $4.2 billion data center book, which includes stakes in NextDC, AirTrunk, and CDC Data Centres. The firm's engineering teams have reduced time-to-commercial on five prior greenfield projects by an average of 4.3 months, a margin that matters when hyperscaler lease commencements carry $18 million monthly delay penalties.

Allocators should track three follow-on developments. First, Stack's North American and European portfolios remain under separate ownership, and the company has hired Evercore to explore a dual-track process—sale or IPO—for those assets, with indicative bids due in Q4 2026. Second, the transaction's debt structure establishes a new pricing benchmark for levered data center acquisitions in Asia, 40 basis points tighter than the prior comp, which may compress yields on competing deals already in market. Third, regulatory approval timelines in Japan and Australia will signal how quickly foreign capital can move on critical infrastructure in an environment where data sovereignty and AI governance are tightening. The Australian Foreign Investment Review Board has added 8-12 weeks to recent telecom and data center reviews, and any extension here would delay the consortium's ability to redirect Stack's $1.1 billion budgeted capex for 2027 expansion.

Stack Infrastructure declined to comment. BlackRock and IFM Investors did not respond to requests. The Tokyo facilities account for 38% of the portfolio's total megawatts and sit within 12 kilometers of three hyperscaler AI training clusters already online.