The logo of Spanish real state company Merlin is seen outside one of its buildings in Madrid, Spain, May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/File Photo
(Reuters) - Spanish real estate group Merlin Properties expects its fledgling data centre business to account for about 40% of its revenue by 2030 as it taps into a boom in artificial intelligence, CEO Ismael Clemente told Reuters.
Data centres made up less than 1% of Merlin's revenue in the first half of this year, which mainly came from offices, shopping malls and logistics.
But Clemente estimated that its data centre division would bring in around 313 million euros ($350 million) in gross rents, or about 40% of the total, by the end of the decade.
Merlin, which already has three data centres in Spain and is building one in Portugal, launched a 1-billion-euro capital increase in July to finance its data processing business and expects to raise an extra billion in debt in the first half of 2026.
Appetite for artificial intelligence globally has propelled investment in data centres, which are mainly used for data storage and cloud computing services.
Europe still has only about a third of the data centres' installed capacity of the United States, Clemente said, although European countries are rushing to build more centres.
Clemente said Spain was a "happy island" for data centre development due to cheap energy, abundant land and suitable locations.
"Spain has an absolutely privileged location since 70% of the world's data traffic passes through there thanks to its connection with all relevant submarine cables," he said in a phone interview with Reuters late last week.
Companies such as Amazon, Acciona, ACS, Iberdrola and Solaria have been investing in data centres in Spain.
Clemente pointed out, however, that building data centres requires hefty investments and specialised knowledge, while red tape can slow down projects.
Barclays analyst Celine Soo-Huynh also pointed to potential licensing delays and the need to import a lot of equipment from the United States "because the European market is not necessarily prepared", as factors that could hamper Merlin's ambition.
($1 = 0.8951 euros)
(Reporting by Matteo Allievi and Javi West Larrañaga, editing by Andrei Khalip and Susan Fenton)
