Iron Mountain today announced its Q2 2021 earnings and provided updates on its data center leasing activity, development pipeline, M&A activity, and joint venture in India with Web Werks.
Overall, Iron Mountain operates 15 data centers, representing 144.7 megawatts of power capacity. Specifically, these data centers comprise 3.5 million sqft, in the United States, Europe, and Asia, supporting 1.3k+ customers.
Financial Performance in Q2 2021 – Iron Mountain
In Q2 2021, Iron Mountain reported data center revenue of $77.0m, an 8.3% increase quarter-over-quarter, and data center adjusted EBITDA of $33.4m, a 9.9% increase quarter-over-quarter. As a result, the company’s data center EBITDA margin expanded to 43.4% in Q2 2021 from 42.8% in Q1 2021.
Operational Performance in Q2 2021 – Iron Mountain
New Leases
In Q2 2021, new lease signings were $6.4m, down 54% from the $13.8m of signings during Q1 2021. In total, the new lease signings represented 3.6 megawatts of power capacity, implying pricing of $148 per kW per month.
The majority of Iron Mountain’s new leasing during Q2 2021 was in the retail colocation and enterprise segments. In turn, this resulted in an uptick to new lease pricing for the quarter. Iron Mountain’s strongest markets in terms of new lease signings were Phoenix, Singapore, and Northern Virginia (Manassas).
Additionally, subsequent to quarter-end, Iron Mountain signed a 6-megawatt lease with a new hyperscale customer in Northern Virginia (Manassas). As a result, for the first 7-months of 2021, Iron Mountain has leased 19 megawatts of data center capacity.
For full-year 2021, Iron Mountain increased its leasing target to 30+ megawatts of power capacity, from a range of 25 to 30 megawatts previously.
Renewal Leases
Iron Mountain signed renewal leases representing $12.6m of rental revenue during Q2 2021. On a cash basis, these lease renewals were up 2.1% and on a GAAP basis, lease renewals were up 2.6%.
Churn
Iron Mountain had customer churn in Q2 2021 of 1.9%, which is an improvement from churn of 2.3% in Q1 2021. However, the company’s churn remains elevated when compared to its typical sub-1.5% average for prior quarters.
Utilization
As of Q2 2021, Iron Mountain’s data center portfolio utilization declined to 83.0% from 85.2% in Q1 2021. However, this was in-part driven by bringing 6.0 megawatts of power capacity on-line at its VA-2 facility in Northern Virginia (Manassas), which has only been 50% leased. Focusing solely on Iron Mountain’s stabilized data centers, utilization was flat quarter-over-quarter at 88.4%.
Development Pipeline – Iron Mountain
As of Q2 2021, Iron Mountain’s data center development pipeline comprised $323m, with 66.0 megawatts of power capacity under construction. Overall, these projects are 69.7% pre-leased.
Iron Mountain’s 66.0 megawatts of power capacity under construction includes Frankfurt (27 megawatts), Phoenix (25 megawatts), London (9 megawatts), and Amsterdam (5 megawatts).
London Data Center Expansion
In June 2021, Iron Mountain announced a greenfield build for its second facility in the London market (LON-2), which will be located in Slough, UK. Specifically, this facility will comprise 27 megawatts of power capacity and 270k sqft (25k sqm), at full build-out. As of Q2 2021, Iron Mountain designates 9 megawatts as “under construction” and 18 megawatts as “held for development”.
M&A – Iron Mountain’s Frankfurt Data Center Acquisition
In July 2021, Iron Mountain announced it had agreed to acquire a data center in Frankfurt, Germany from a Keppel Corporation-controlled entity for €76m. Specifically, the facility is a two-story, 215k sqft (20.0k sqm) colocation data center with 10.6 megawatts of power capacity.
India – Data Center Joint Venture with Web Werks
As of Q2 2021, Iron Mountain has made an investment of $50.1m (3.8bn Indian Rupees) into its Web Werks joint venture for data centers in India. Presently, Iron Mountain owns a 38% equity interest, in the form of convertible preference shares, in the joint venture.
Additionally, Iron Mountain will make $100m (7.5bn Indian Rupees) of additional investments, over the next two years, into the Web Werks joint venture.
