UK's Digital 9 sells stake in Verne Global, initiates strategic review

(Reuters) -British investment firm Digital 9 Infrastructure (D9) initiated a strategic review of its portfolio on Monday and said it had agreed to sell its stake in data group Verne Global for $575 million as it seeks to cut debt and boost its finances.

D9 in October, had said it was assessing a divestment of its Verne Global shareholding and had received indicative offers. It has now sold the stake to funds managed by private equity investment company Ardian France SA.

The disposal will enable the company to pay down about 300 million pounds ($373.83 million) of an existing credit facility while reviewing options for "maximising shareholder value."

The FTSE-250 company said initiating a strategic review before the Verne deal "could have undermined the process to maximise shareholder value from Verne Global without directly helping to address (D9's) financial uncertainty."

D9 had acquired Verne Global, which runs a data centre campus in Iceland, for 231 million pounds in September 2021.

The company also added that it intends to review the skills and composition of the board as a part of the review.

D9 primarily invests in digital infrastructure assets such as data centres and fibre systems.

($1 = 0.8025 pounds)

(Reporting by Sri Hari N S in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)