AirTrunk calls in boardroom heavyweight amid IPO prep
Data centre tearaway AirTrunk has drafted in Fortescue’s deputy chairman to lead its board, just as it begins preparations for what could be a $10 billion-plus IPO.
Mark Barnaba at Fortescue’s last AGM in Perth in November 2022. Trevor Collens
Mark Barnaba started as AirTrunk’s independent chair on Monday, taking over from Macquarie Asset Management dealmaker Ani Satchcroft, who has led the investment for the firm and would remain on the board.
Barnaba knows his way around boardrooms of billion-dollar companies. He has been Fortescue Metals Group’s deputy chairman since 2017, in a gig that sees him front investors at AGMs alongside executive chairman Andrew Forrest. He also chairs the board of London-listed Greatland Gold.
He co-founded Azure Capital, the Perth-headquartered corporate advisory business which is now part-owned by Natixis. In the past, he has chaired Alinta Infrastructure Holdings, and served as a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, where he chaired the central bank’s audit committee. He also knows AirTrunk’s part owner, Macquarie, after working as its chairman and global head of the natural resources group.
“Mark joins the AirTrunk Board at an exciting time as we embark on the next phase of hypergrowth, continuing the expansion of our leading data centre platform throughout the APJ region,” AirTrunk’s CEO and founder Robin Khuda said.
“Mark’s extensive background in corporate governance and scaling fast-growing businesses, coupled with his entrepreneurial acumen and deep understanding of capital markets, renders Mark an invaluable asset to AirTrunk as we enable APJ’s digital future that is being accelerated by cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning,” he said.
AirTrunk has mandated Goldman Sachs and Macquarie as joint lead managers on a potential $10 billion IPO, as revealed by Street Talk. If the float is successful, it would mark the biggest IPO since health insurer Medibank Private’s $5.7 billion listing in 2014.
AirTrunk’s contracted EBITDA has grown over seven times to circa $600 million since Macquarie Asset Management and PSP acquired an 88 per cent stake in the business in 2020, in a deal that valued the business then at more than $3 billion.
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