NEXTDC takes CEO out of Asia Pacific Data Centre boardroom running

NEXTDC CEO, Craig Scroggie

NEXTDC (ASX:NXT) has withdrawn its CEO, Craig Scroggie, and non-executive director, Stuart Davis, from being in the running to be voted in as Asia Pacific Data Centre Group (APDC) (ASX:AJD) directors at the company’s upcoming annual general meeting.

“NEXTDC Limited has today advised APDC that it has decided to withdraw the nomination of Mr Stuart Davis and Mr Craig Scroggie for appointment as directors of APDC Holdings,” the data centre property operator told shareholders in a statement published on 17 November.

Accordingly, the company said, the resolutions to be voted on at the upcoming annual general meeting set for 23 November deciding whether Davis and Scroggie would be elected as directors of the company have now been withdrawn and will no longer be considered at the meeting.

It should be noted that NEXTDC's decision to withdraw Scroggie and Davis from nomination for directorship at the AGM came a day after APDC said its chairman did not intend to vote undirected proxies for the resolutions that would see the NEXTDC CEO and non-executive director appointed as directors for the data centre property group.

The move comes almost exactly a month after the Australian Government’s Takeovers Panel decided not to get involved in the bidding war between NEXTDC and property investment firm, 360 Capital Group (ASX:TGP) for control of Asia Pacific Data Centre Group.

On 9 October, NEXTDC submitted an application to the Takeover Panels against the 360 Capital Group’s bid to buy out the APDC, which houses a number of NEXTDC’s data centres in its built-for-purpose properties.

The data centre operator wanted to get its hands on all the APDC shares that were acquired by 360 Capital on-market after the publication of its bidder’s statement for the company, and before the date of the corrective disclosure, it is requesting, be unwound.

NEXTDC had been trying to buy back ownership of APDC since at least July, as a response to 360 Capital’s acquisition of 19.8 per cent of the group earlier in the year.

Since the decision by the Takeovers Panel, however, 360 Capital Group has been quietly buying up a greater shareholding of the data centre property group, attaining 65.52 per cent of the voting rights in the company, as of 15 November.

360 Capital Group currently has a takeover offer in play that is set to expire on 20 November.

ADPC is a special purpose real estate investment trust (REIT) which was established to own properties – including land and buildings – that are operated or being developed as data centres.

The sole assets of the publicly-listed group, which was originally spun off by NEXTDC as an independent entity several years ago, are three data centre properties, Sydney (S1), Melbourne (M1) and Perth (P1), all of which are occupied by NEXTDC under long-term lease arrangements.