Iron Mountain today announced its Q3 2021 earnings and provided updates on its data center leasing activity, development pipeline, churn dynamics in Phoenix and Denver, as well as the closing of its Frankfurt (FRA-2) acquisition.
Overall, Iron Mountain operates 19 data centers, representing 156.6 megawatts of power capacity. Specifically, these data centers comprise 3.7 million sqft, in the United States, Europe, and Asia, supporting 1.3k+ customers.
Financial Performance in Q3 2021 – Iron Mountain
In Q3 2021, Iron Mountain reported data center revenue of $88.6m, a 15% increase quarter-over-quarter, and data center adjusted EBITDA of $35.1m, a 5.0% increase quarter-over-quarter. Therefore, the company’s EBITDA margin was 39.6% in Q3 2021, a 3.8% decline quarter-over-quarter.
Operational Performance in Q3 2021 – Iron Mountain
New Leases
In Q3 2021, new lease signings were $11.3m, up 76% from the $6.4m of signings during Q2 2021. In total, the new lease signings represented 9.0 megawatts of power capacity, implying pricing of $105 per kW per month. Notably, new lease pricing was down 29% in the quarter.
Geographically, Iron Mountain’s strongest markets in terms of new lease signings were Phoenix and Northern Virginia (Manassas).
During the first 10 months of 2021, Iron Mountain has leased 24 megawatts of data center capacity. For full-year 2021, Iron Mountain targets leasing 30+ megawatts of power capacity.
Renewal Leases
Iron Mountain signed renewal leases representing $10.4m of rental revenue during Q3 2021. On a cash basis, these lease renewals were down 1.3% and on a GAAP basis, lease renewals were up 6.1%.
Churn
Iron Mountain had data center churn in Q3 2021 of 3.9%, a significant 200 bps step-up from churn of 1.9% in Q2 2021. Notably, Phoenix and Denver were two markets where Iron Mountain experienced meaningful churn. Moreover, the company has recently recognized elevated churn levels, averaging 3.0% over the past four quarters.
Utilization
As of Q3 2021, Iron Mountain’s data center portfolio utilization increased to 85.0% from 83.0% in Q2 2021. Analyzing solely Iron Mountain’s stabilized data centers, utilization was 89.4%, up 100 bps quarter-over-quarter.
Acquisition – Frankfurt (FRA-2)
In September 2021, Iron Mountain closed on its previously announced acquisition of a data center in Frankfurt, Germany (FRA-2) from Keppel Corporation. Through this €77.9m ($91.3m) purchase, Iron Mountain gained 2.4 megawatts of leased capacity.
Additionally, this Frankfurt facility is currently under-utilized with the potential to lease 10.6 megawatts of total power capacity. To this end, Iron Mountain notes that, subsequent to quarter-end, it signed 1.6 megawatts of new leases for this site.
Development Pipeline – Iron Mountain
As of Q3 2021, Iron Mountain’s data center development pipeline comprised $279m, with 60.4 megawatts of power capacity under construction. Overall, these projects are 62.9% pre-leased, through sites in Phoenix and Frankfurt.
Iron Mountain’s 60.4 megawatts of power capacity under construction includes Frankfurt (27 megawatts), Phoenix (17 megawatts), London (9 megawatts), Amsterdam (5 megawatts), and India (2.4 megawatts).
India – Data Center Joint Venture with Web Werks
As of Q3 2021, Iron Mountain has made an investment of $50.1m (3.75bn Indian Rupees) into its Web Werks joint venture for data centers in India. Presently, Iron Mountain owns a 38% equity interest in the joint venture and has marked its stake at $51.3m.
Additionally, by May 2023, Iron Mountain will make $100m (7.5bn Indian Rupees) of incremental investments, into the Web Werks joint venture.
