Equinix today announced its Q1 2021 earnings, provided updates on its data center development plan, which includes its xScale joint venture with GIC, and left its full-year 2021 guidance largely unchanged from prior updates.
Q1 2021 Results – Equinix
Revenues
Equinix generated revenues of $1.6bn in Q1 2021, a 1% increase over Q4 2020 and a 7% increase over Q1 2020 (constant currency basis). Specifically, breaking this down by region, Equinix’s growth was as follows (constant currency basis):
- Americas: 2% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 5% increase year-over-year
- EMEA: no growth quarter-over-quarter and a 7% increase year-over-year
- Asia-Pacific: 2% increase quarter-over-quarter and a 10% increase year-over-year
Following Equinix’s Q1 2021 growth in Asia-Pacific, the company became the market leader in Asia-Pacific retail colocation, amongst its peers.
Bookings
In Q1 2021, Equinix delivered its “second best” net bookings quarter ever with 4.3k+ deals across 3.2k+ customers. Additionally, the company’s channel program contributed 30%+ of Equinix’s bookings and accounted for 60%+ of its new logos.
Interconnection
Equinix added more than 6.7k net interconnections during Q1 2021, bringing the company’s total interconnections to over 399k at quarter-end. Of this total, 368k are physical cross connects and 31k are virtual connections.
Overall, the company’s growth in interconnections resulted in interconnection revenues growing 16% year-over-year in Q1 2021.
Full-Year 2021 Guidance – Equinix
For full-year 2021, Equinix is guiding to revenue of $6.56bn to $6.62bn, an increase of 9% to 10% over 2020. Additionally, the company is targeting adjusted EBITDA of $3.07bn to $3.13bn.
Development Plan – Equinix
Equinix states that 2021 will be one its most active build years ever. To this end, Equinix has 36 major builds underway in 28 markets across 19 countries, including 6 xScale builds in all three regions of the world. Following significant development, the company anticipates ending 2021 with 336k cabinets of power capacity.
Development Focus (excluding xScale)
During 2021, Equinix foresees spending of $2.1bn to $2.3bn in development capital expenditures, excluding xScale-related costs. Notably, Equinix’s top five markets by allocated capital expenditure spend include Singapore, London, Paris, Silicon Valley, and Frankfurt. Additionally, as part of its Q1 2021 earnings release, Equinix approved further data center expansion capacity in Washington, D.C., Bogotá (Colombia), Singapore, and Tokyo.
xScale Joint Venture – Hyperscale Builds
Equinix continues to grow its $3bn+ xScale joint venture with Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. As of Q1 2021, Equinix, through xScale, expects to develop 293 megawatts of power capacity for hyperscale customers in Europe and Asia.
For example, in Q1 2021, Equinix announced the construction of the first building of its DB5x campus in Dublin, Ireland, which is 100% pre-leased to a hyperscale customer. Furthermore, the DB5x campus will be added by Equinix to a current or future xScale joint venture.
Overall, xScale-related capital expenditures during 2021 will reach between $425m and $475m, of which Equinix will be re-imbursed 80% by GIC for future xScale joint ventures.
