Morgan Laughlin

PGIM Real Estate has completed the fundraise for its first Global Data Center Fund (GDCF) with $2 billion of capital allocated to the strategy. PGIM Real Estate secured capital commitments for the GDCF from a range of global investors.

The Fund has a build-fill-sell investment strategy focused on the low latency hyperscale segment of the global data center sector, targeting opportunistic investment returns. Since its first close in July 2023, the GDCF has been developing a geographically diversified portfolio of assets targeting investments across the major global data center markets of North America, Asia Pacific and Europe. The Fund is managed by a global portfolio management team led by Global Head of Data Center Investments Morgan Laughlin and PGIM Real Estate has over a decade of experience investing in the sector.

The Global Data Center Fund creates value through asset-level development joint ventures with leading data center operators. Retaining an operator-independent approach allows the Fund to access attractive investment opportunities in supply constrained markets through its deep range of operator relationships. ESG considerations are factored into each investment decision with a defined asset allocation to buildings with a green building certificate.

As well as raising capital amongst institutional investors, PGIM Real Estate entered into a distribution partnership with a leading global private bank to raise assets globally for the Fund.

Morgan Laughlin commented: “Successfully reaching our $2 billion target raise is an important milestone that reflects strong investor confidence in the sector and our strategy. Data centers are at the heart of the digital framework that is playing an increasingly critical role across our economy and society. In line with the recognition of the importance of digital infrastructure in our modern lives, global investors are rapidly increasing their exposure to the sector.”

To date, over $450 million of equity capital has been committed to data center investments across PGIM Real Estate, and GDCF retains a strong pipeline of opportunities that is expected to allow it to deploy the remaining capital within the next 18 months.

PGIM Real Estate co-chief executive officer and global chief investment officer  Raimondo Amabile commented: “Congratulations to the team on reaching the final close on our Global Data Center Fund. We see a significant opportunity to develop expertise in the data center space and create a wider digital infrastructure platform. Data centers, and other associated digital infrastructure, offer a generational investment opportunity as the digital demands of our societies and economies continue to expand at an astounding pace.”

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Footh has been appointed as a managing director on the global Data Center Investments portfolio management team. He will have transactional and portfolio management responsibilities for investments made by PGIM Real Estate in the data center sector. Based in Seattle, Footh will report into Morgan Laughlin, PGIM Real Estate’s head of Japan and global head of Data Center Investments.

Footh joins from Amazon Web Services, where among other roles he was responsible for all data center infrastructure development and portfolio oversight of AWS data centers in the western half of the United States, Canada and Latin America, EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. He brings more than 30 years of real estate experience to the role, having worked for a range of market participants in the U.S. and Europe before joining AWS.

Laughlin commented: “The availability of large amounts of low-latency data processing capacity is becoming increasingly critical to the global economy and society as a whole. This trend is driving long-term, sustained growth in demand for data center infrastructure. It also clearly signals the need for real estate investors to incorporate digital infrastructure investment strategies into their global portfolios.”

“PGIM Real Estate is addressing this investor need with a dedicated data center investment team pursuing investment structures to grow exposure to the global data center sector. Jim is an important addition to our dedicated global Data Center Investments team, and I am truly excited to have him on board.”

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