ASG centre sells for $11.7m

Perth information technology company ASG Group has offloaded its flagship data centre about a year after putting it up for sale.

Sydney-based Vocus Communications has agreed to buy the Bentley Data Centre for $11.7 million.

ASG Group opened the data centre in late 2011 following a $13 million investment.

It announced it was intending to sell the facility last year following a reassessment of the company’s direction and a decision that operating a data centre was not core to its business.

Instead, ASG has been pursuing growth through the development and sale of what it calls ‘new world’ services - cloud-based information technology management and implementation.

The sale to Vocus marks an effort from the Sydney-based firm to increase its activity in Western Australia.

Vocus also owns the Perth iX data centre, which it had been seeking to expand.

ASG Group utilises the Bentley Data Centre to host its cloud services. Under the deal with Vocus it will retain its space in the data centre and Vocus become its telecommunications provider of choice across Australia.

ASG said it would use the proceeds of the sale to accelerate its debt reduction, which it hoped to fall to less than $10 million in the 2014-15 financial year.