Earnings Labs

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 13, 2020

$194.58

-1.12%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+3.93%

1 Week

+9.17%

1 Month

+9.25%

vs S&P

+34.25%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Digital Realty Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Call. Please note this event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Due to time constraints, we will conclude promptly at the hour. I would now like to turn the call over to John Stewart, Digital Realty's Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

John Stewart

Analyst

Thank you, Sean. The speakers on today's call are CEO, Bill Stein; and SVP Finance, Matt Mercier; CIO, Greg Wright; CTO, Chris Sharp; and Corey Dyer, EVP Sales and Marketing, are also on the call and will be available for Q&A. Management may make forward-looking statements, including guidance and the underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements are based on expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. For a further discussion of risks related to our business, see our 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC. This call will contain non-GAAP financial information. Reconciliations to net income are included in the supplemental package furnished to the SEC and available on our website. Investors are encouraged to read the proxy statement and prospectus with respect to the proposed transaction between Digital Realty and interaction and other relevant documents filed with the SEC because they contain important information. You may obtain a free copy of these documents from the SEC's website at sec.gov or from the websites, our Investor Relations department of either Digital Realty or Interxion. Before I turn the call over to our CEO, Bill Stein. I'd like to hit the tops of the waves on our fourth quarter results. We extended our global footprint, reaching agreements to a combine with Interxion and to enter India. We enhanced our portfolio quality, recycling capital from fully stabilized assets into network dense interconnection hubs. We launched platform digital, a unique global data center platform designed to enable customers to scale digital business. We advanced our sustainability initiatives with incremental renewable energy agreements and several industry awards. Last but not least, we've further strengthened the balance sheet, locking in long-term debt and preferred equity capital at record low coupons. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Bill.

Bill Stein

Analyst

Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us. Our formula for long-term value creation is a global, connected, sustainable framework. We advanced each of these three pillars in 2019, culminating with the addition of a new member to the Digital family, and we'd like to congratulate our friend and partner Andy Power along with his wife Sarah on the arrival of their baby girl Power Madison Elizabeth earlier this week. We continued to expand our global footprint. The highlight was, of course, our entry into a definitive agreement to combine with Interxion in a highly strategic and complementary transaction that will create a leading global provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data center solutions. We also executed a memorandum of understanding with the Adani Group to pursue a joint venture in India and we are actively exploring opportunities to plant our first flag in this vast untapped market with tremendous growth potential. Yesterday we announced an agreement with Clise Properties to acquire a 49% ownership interest in the Westin Building Exchange in Seattle shown here on Page 3. The Westin Building is one of the most densely interconnected facilities in North America. It is home to leading global cloud content and interconnection providers with over 150 carriers and more than 10,000 cross-connects. As you are probably aware, we've closed $1.4 billion of asset sales over the past three months. Pro forma for the asset sales of Westin Building and the combination with Interxion, network dense performance sensitive assets will make up nearly half our portfolio, up from a little over one-fourth as of September 30th. Taken together, you can see the strategic direction uniting each of these individual pieces. We are deliberately recycling capital from stabilized assets and reinvesting in higher growth opportunities sacrificing near-term earnings growth for long-term value…

Matt Mercier

Analyst

Thank you, Bill. Let's begin with our leasing activity here on Page 9. We delivered another solid quarter of leasing activity with particular strength in APAC and the Americas, we signed total bookings of $69 million, just shy of our all-time second best, fourth quarter bookings included a $7 million contribution from interconnection. We signed new leases for space and power totaling $62 million, with a weighted average lease term of a little over six years, including an $8 million colocation contribution. I would like to point out that we see the lines blurring between product types and the distinction is becoming less meaningful. As a result, we expect to evolve our disclosure in the coming quarters to more closely align with our customers' buying behavior and the way we manage the business. We aim to consistently improve the transparency of our financial disclosures and as always, we welcome additional input from analysts and investors in the process. During the fourth quarter, we added 51 new logos. This was our third highest new logo quarter and our two best came in 3Q '19 and 2Q '19. For the full year, we added 250 new logos. Nearly, 40% better than the prior year, underscoring the traction we're gaining within our enterprise segment. In APAC, we saw strength in Sydney, Singapore and Osaka. In the Americas, we quietly leased another 18 megawatts and Ashburn during the fourth quarter and similar to the previous quarter our biggest deal in this market was just 6 megawatts, demonstrating broad-based strengths of demand. As Andy predicted last quarter, the Ashburn pendulum has swung back a bit quicker than just about anyone expected a year ago. In the tremendous scale and the connectivity of our Ashburn Connected Campus outperformed in a crowded, competitive backdrop. On the heels…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Jon Atkin with RBC. Please go ahead.

Jon Atkin

Analyst

So my first question is around the transaction with Interxion and wondering, if you have any sort of thoughts about the anticipated timing around the foreign investment filings in France and Germany that you alluded to? And then as you proceed with planning, I know you're understandably limited to a degree, prior to the close. But what steps are you able to take over in Europe, prior to the transaction close to facilitate the integration once the deal is concluded?

Greg Wright

Analyst

Jon, it's Greg Wright, let me take your question. The first one, with respect to where we are in the Interxion transaction, again, specifically, let's just go through a couple of things. We have received antitrust clearance as Bill said, in all three jurisdictions where we need approval in terms of Austria, Germany and The Netherlands. And that's on the antitrust clearance side. We're still awaiting decisions for the foreign investment filings in both France and Germany and look, we're - we think - one thing that's encouraging is we're already in both of those markets. And then trying to handicap, when that comes back, it's hard to do. But we will say, so far, we feel like we're making progress where we should be. And that's really all we have at this point, but we'll continue to announce to the market as we get additional findings there. That was your first question. On the second question, with respect to the steps to integration, we're currently planning for integration, as you could imagine. So far though, the primary focus has been on regulatory approvals going effective with the SEC and launching our exchange offshore. And now we have started to ramp up the integration effort with our colleagues, Interxion. We've gotten to the point where we're identifying people and teams to lead the integration. We've identified and we're working with integration consultants. And we were at a point where we're allowed to have certain people on both sides connect with each other. And clearly, we're making sure that we always consult with the lawyers to make sure we do the right things where we can and can't. So that's where we are with respect to that.

Jon Atkin

Analyst

And then maybe just a follow-up more on the operational side, but PlatformDIGITAL, curious which metros you've been seeing the most commercial progress towards driving more connectivity driven and retail business. Any color around sales cycles and is there any kind of lengthening or shortening that you're seeing as well as kind of book-to-bill trends you talked about that, I think maybe in reference to wholesale, but anything sort of commercially as it relates to connectivity and then retail and PlatformDIGITAL would be interesting to hear.

Corey Dyer

Analyst

Jonathan, this is Corey Dyer. Just going to help out with the PlatformDIGITAL question you had. And you asked a little bit about where we see it happening and where we see it taking route to begin. And I would tell you that, that platform digital really is about the enterprise and selling globally. So it's not really a situation where we're going to look at specific markets for it. But, that said, we launched it in November in MarketplaceLIVE, our new event that we put out or resurrected, really good feedback from all the media analysts, the analysts themselves. If you look the IDC report that we referenced earlier, it has just up in the leader segment for that along with one of their group. So really happy with how it's been rolled out and what we're seeing from traction with customers. So it's been great there, across the entire globe for us. We referenced earlier at couple of different wins. We had one of the largest investment banks, deployed six different network hubs with us to help out with their architecture, as well as servicing their customers and their employees. We also have a large agricultural firm do the same kind of deployment across multiple regions with us. So we've seen it pickup really well for us. And then, I think your questions around commencement date with the follow-on question I think Jordan. And what we think we're going to see is a little bit shortening of that. To your point around wholesale, we tend to see that commence a little bit later. These are going to drive a little bit more co-location for us, a lot more enterprise wins and you'll see a much quicker or shorter time between booking and commencement. I think that answered all the questions. Greg, do you have anything else?

Greg Wright

Analyst

No, I think you've covered it. Thanks, Jonathan.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Jordan Sadler with KeyBanc Capital Market. Please go ahead.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

So just wanted to circle up to the Seattle acquisition that you announced and discussed on the call here. The thought process on this transaction and the return profile relative to sort of legacy digital and perhaps as well as the growth profile versus Digital. And then, maybe thinking how this sort of corresponds or relate to sort of what you're doing over in Europe if at all.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Jordan, this is Greg. Let me take that question. And like with respect to the Westin transaction, look, I think Bill had gone through really the merits of the transaction, whether it's boosting connectivity and network density. As he mentioned, this is the sixth most interconnected building in North America, you have 250 plus networks and over 10,000 cross connects. It really is the Internet gateway to the Pacific Northwest. And when you look at it in terms of connectivity. First of all, the way the process start is our partner has been a terrific partner, the Colony's family and their company. We've had a longstanding relationship with them. And they decided they wanted to sell. So for us, given how much and we've always said, our strategy has been that we want to increase our ownership to Internet Gateway and highly connected assets. And you really when you and that's your mandate, you can't get any better than the Westin building. So that was really the rationale behind it. In terms of returns, look, I would say I sort of a mid to high 5% cap rate, call that little less than 18 times on an EBITDA multiple basis. And in terms of growth projections, I mean. clearly, with any of these highly connected Internet Gateway buildings, we expect greater growth one than our portfolio average, just because these buildings as we know from Saramacca, 60 Hudson and the like. Those buildings are very special. And so you really do get outsize growth with them. So that was really the strategic rationale. In response to your question with respect to Europe, It's a very similar strategy when you really think about it, right? In terms of the Interaction transaction, I mean, we've said for quite some time now. We've had several objectives. One was we did want to expand our footprint in Europe. Secondly, we wanted to increase our ownership again of Internet Gateway and highly connected assets. We really were striving for a leading European platform and the team. And with all that, we were looking for a significant development platform. And needless to say, with Interaction, we get all of that. And so one of the real benefits to digital there. And then, we're going to get a broader footprint and product offering to serve our customers, which is most important. In Europe and beyond, we're going to be able to do a lot of what they do best and overlay that onto our portfolio. That too is going to result. just as we talked about the Westin building and accelerated growth. And ultimately, with the combination of all of that, it's going to result in increased value creation in our minds. So, I think I've covered your questions Jordan. If I missed, please let me know.

Jordan Sadler

Analyst

No, I think you nailed it. I assume we're going to close in the next couple of months or so. But as it relates to, I'll move on to Ashburn, I wanted to come back. It sounded like, yes, you are quietly signing some significant leases here 18 meg. Can you maybe provide sort of the - were there any new logos in that market signed in the quarter? And then, anything else you can sort of, any other insight you can offer in terms of availability within your portfolio. You said you're, I thought you said part of, I think you said you were largely leased on your development there. But it sounds like you're sorting out some or scoping out some availability as well.

Matt Mercier

Analyst

Yes, Jordan. This is Matt. So I think we've had a lot of success in Northern Virginia both this quarter and last quarter. This quarter Northern Virginia was our number one market for leasing. And overall, I think as we've said in the prepared commentary the market really come - really come back in the second half of the year, although absorption was down, down a bit from 2018 was actually higher than 2017 overall. I think to your question, specific question subsequent to end of the quarter, we leased another 20 megawatt in that market, 12 megawatt of those were in the - our development portfolio, which now brings add up to a 100% lease and another 8 megawatt was within our operating portfolio, which was already I think slightly over 90% leased, so, improves the occupancy in that market as well, so we're excited about the Northern Virginia market and we're continuing to see robust demand there.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Yes. Thanks, Jordan. I'd also like to add a little bit of - just overall work that we've done in that market with our master plans and our land banking. It really allows us to be very prudent on how we can bring infrastructure to our customers in a very balanced manner. And I think new logos is one way to look at it, but it's also new types of infrastructure coming to market. So as you see AI and machine learning becoming more prevalent with all of these major providers, they want to be in proximity to their existing infrastructure. So the work that we've done in that market to master plan the right of ways, and really start to think through how we can future prove to their existing assets and provide a path for them to grow and launch all these new services. It's something that's very unique in that market and we continue to look at the future growth there. It'd be differentiated than what we can provide through a lot of those customers,

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Michael Funk with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Michael Funk

Analyst

A couple if I could. I am just going to following on onto last question, it's probably pretty wide range a commentary, about kind of the funnel hyperscale demand in general. Maybe just tie that back to your commentary about Ashburn, what you're seeing there and this funnel in general. And then one of the interactions, if I could maybe remind me about the tax ability for that deal for Interaction Investor were seeing the other details behind that.

Corey Dyer

Analyst

So Michael, this is Cory, I'll take the first part of the question around just the Ashburn competition, because I think that's what you're driving and we'll figure out somebody else for the other questions around the taxes. First off, yes, we've been successful in Ashburn, really about the value of our platform and really the diverse offering that we have. You think about what we've got with customers that are already there and how they're going to build onto it. So, we've got some customers that are already installed there and they're looking for adjacency in the campus, adjacency sometimes in the same building. So that helps us a lot. The same customers are often the scaling customers that we're working with globally and having the relationships from the contracts and everything we do to take care of them on a regular basis, helps us continue to win those deals and those opportunities. And then finally, yes, we're working through the Tetris game of how we accommodate the demand that's continue to come for us and make sure that we're there to take care of them and continuing to build on our success in Ashburn. So we're excited about it. And I think you also asked about our plat our qualified pipeline and we're feeling very strong about that. So we're well positioned for this year with a good start.

Michael Funk

Analyst

And then just a follow-on.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Mike. Let me...

Michael Funk

Analyst

Sorry, go ahead

Greg Wright

Analyst

Sorry, go ahead.

Michael Funk

Analyst

I've got a follow-on, I think you clarified so, I mean are you saying that kind of diversity of the customer base is I guess 80 new Westin bookings that you're seeing more diverse customer base, whether it's industry wide or geographically. Is that part we're seeing here?

Matt Mercier

Analyst

Yes. Let me, this is Matt. Let me take. I mean, we saw in Northern Virginia, we had pretty widespread activity across multiple customers within cloud, content and gaming, we're really leading the way within that market. And also, a number of international clients coming into Northern Virginia. So we had major signs of also APAC-based technology companies within that market as well in the quarter and we expect to continue that going forward.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Yes. Hey, Michael, it's Greg. Sorry to interrupt you there before. And look, with respect to your second question on taxation of the Interxion transaction, you're right. Look something as we had outlined in the S-4, and I had actually mentioned on the original call. The deal is taxable transaction for U.S. federal income tax purposes for U.S. holders of the Interxion shares. I think there's a couple of things to consider. Look, there were numerous tax considerations when we structured this deal. Their side was well represented and as was ours. We worked and ultimately, we're trying to find as what's the most efficient structure? Quite frankly that allow us to pay the price that we paid. And so, there's a couple of points in the structure we ultimately came up with was that structure, but a couple of points to highlight. One is not all shareholders pay U.S. tax some are exempt. And secondly, not all shareholders have the same basis, right. If somebody bought yesterday, they may have a very minimal gain than they sold today. Third, and I think most bankers will tell you, when you look at it. Taxable transactions are more common when the market value of what's being paid is significantly greater than the tax basis. And the reason for that obviously, is if you get the stepped-up basis, you get tax shelter going forward, which allows us to retain significantly more capital in the company to grow the business. Hence, the ability to pay. And then finally, I think it's important to note, that the way we've structured the transaction, that all tendering shareholders, it's structured to such that they will be able to avoid the 15% Dutch withholding tax as long as they tender. So I hope that answers your question with respect to the tax impact?

Michael Funk

Analyst

No, that's great detail. Thank you very much, guys

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Michael Rollins with Citi. Please go ahead.

Michael Rollins

Analyst

I had two questions on some of the metrics. So, first, in terms of the commentary on cash releasing spreads, can you unpack a little bit more on what happened in the quarter and the experience that you're seeing between the retail and colo side of the business? And maybe some of the larger deployments from your customers? And then, there was a comment about expecting the same store NOI to be better? And I was wondering, if that meant for 2020 less of a decline or actually net positive growth? And just how to think about what's happening in the mix of all of that? Thanks.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Yes, so let me take the - your second question, then we can circle back on your first one. So within the quarter, yes, we came in at in terms of stabilized NOI growth at the lower end. I think as we said in the commentary, we had about a 1% negative impact from FX rates. We also had another 1% coming in from higher, what I call uncontrollable cost largely around property taxes. And then I'd say, the remaining was tie to what we also discussed with - which was our record expiration year in 2019, despite also having roughly 80% retention, which is a pretty good metric. What I'd say though there is where we see the green shoots is in the fourth quarter, we're at least 15 megawatts into available inventory, which during that - during the quarter was about 40% of our total sign. And seeing in our backlog today, we have about 100 basis points of improved occupancy. In the vast majority of our available inventory right now, I think, is in high demand core markets that we feel pretty positive about the progress within our organic growth going forward. And I think that kind of - that tells also into releasing spreads. We had - within the - more within the year we release over like we said a record year we released over $500 million, slightly down but also did better than we expected. Next year we have a step down in volume of expirations in 2021. So we feel pretty positive about our mark-to-market experience going forward on that front.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Erik Rasmussen with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Erik Rasmussen

Analyst

Yes, thank you. Circling back on the deal you announced yesterday with the 49% - additional 49% the Westin property. What's the ability to sort of expand internally or is there any sort of adjacent land that you could potentially develop on that you can - capture additional opportunities?

Chris Sharp

Analyst

Yes. Thanks, Erik, this is Chris. So, definitely we're very excited about the Westin Building. There is some ability to expand there and with some of the new offerings that Bill and Matt talked about in the script earlier around, some of the new offerings that we're bringing to market and how they are leveraging a lot more interconnection, we'll be able to provide more value to the existing customer base in there. And there is some more power that we can bring through there. and I think ownership really gives us that ability to really control exactly how we evolve that infrastructure and really make sure that we get the maximum return for our customers. And I'll turn the second part of your question over to Craig, and let him talk about adjacent lands.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Yes. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Erik. Look, in terms of adjacent land. I think one thing, it's important, we do own the building next door with our partners at Clise that's important to remember. But I think, one thing about Westin, that it's not just the land next door. I think when you look at the connectivity into Canada and to Asia Pacific, even in to our Hillsboro project. When you look at all that, it is going to give us connectivity across the board and all the connection points. So that's one of the things that's great value with the project like the Westin, if it goes beyond just immediately adjacent - adjacency next door. But instead it goes much broader given the connectivity subsea cables and other things that provide us with that connectivity. So that would be my answer with that. But we - but if there is building, if there is land next door and if I know about it, please let us know because we liked the site. Thank you.

Erik Rasmussen

Analyst

And then maybe just my follow-up. Any sort of update on Brazil and what sort of happening with the Ascenty, how much did they contribute to the America this quarter? And you're seen things start to what's your assessment of that market right now?

Greg Wright

Analyst

Erik, it's Greg. Let me, why don't I answer the first question and then let - Let me, I'll start with second question and let Matt answer the first question. Look, I think when we look at Ascenty and you take a look at 2019 versus budget, we're on top of our writing for 2019. And I think a couple of important takeaways in that market, we saw a lot of the - large U.S, cloud service providers, take a lot of space over the last 24 months. With that said, I want to make sure we're clear on that. If you guys remember when we did that transaction there were 14 assets, there were eight existing assets and six under construction. Those 14 assets right now are 99% leased. So I think that's important. We look at underlying demand and the Ascenty platform remains in our opinion, the dominant platform in the region. So we think we're going to continue to see significant follow-on growth opportunities in additional markets like Chile. And we think, what you'll see is, again, I think there was a slight pause in this last quarter, but we'll see that like we see elsewhere, you'll see the, the demand starts to come back from the customers at that point. Once they absorb and we think you're going to see demand pick-up and we think Chris and his team have done a terrific job and they have an attractive pipeline for 2020. But in terms of how much it contributed Matt would be in better position to answer that.

Matt Mercier

Analyst

Yes. I mean, I think. I think it was the contribution to the quarter was minimal. But what we're seeing right now in the first quarter is an acceleration. They've already signed in the first quarter, more than they did in the fourth quarter. So the positive momentum there in the South American portfolio, similar to what we're seeing in our overall portfolio as the cloud providers continue to ramp up, what we see as their demand overall.

Erik Rasmussen

Analyst

All right, Matt. Thanks.

Chris Sharp

Analyst

There is a little bit of - this is Chris, just on the PlatformDIGITALTM element that we talked about in the script. I think you're seeing early days of a lot of customers going into that market. And so we really see that ecosystem starting to really build out there, and it's a critical element that I think it's important to highlight the fact that it's a customer-led expansion down there. And so, it's still early days like Matt was referencing.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Simon Flannery with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Simon Flannery

Analyst

Interesting to get the commentary on Ashburn, that's encouraging. Can you just talk about to what extent there is sort of changes in the competitive dynamic there? Are you seeing any change in the kind of positioning of the private players in terms of committing capital or delaying builds any supply side changes? And then it's good to see the lease renewals being spread out from here, but are there any particular churn events we should be aware of or should -do you expect churn to be fairly linear through the year? Thanks.

Chris Sharp

Analyst

No. I think, Simon, this is Chris, definitely Ashburn is a phenomenal market. It's very unique in the industry as we all know. But definitely from the private competitors, I think one of the things that's often overlooked is the fact that platforms matter in their increasing importance to our customers where they have access to broader revenue in every major market around the globe. And I think also the fact that you can land and expand with us and the work that we've done to build out land banks and beyond what some of these smaller private companies were able to achieve. So that's really a big differentiator for us. And then the overall supply like we had referenced earlier the fact that we've worked with our VMI, or vendor managed piece and a lot of our build outs there, we're very prudent in the way that we can accelerate and build capacity in a very flexible manner to meet that customer requirement and I kind of hand Greg off for the second part of your question there.

Greg Wright

Analyst

Yes. Thanks, Chris. And Simon, I would say echo obviously everything Chris said, and the other important factor here is, look I think by definition when you look and see at the supply and demand situation, it's still exist in Northern Virginia that we'd be very surprised if you see any private new capital coming in deployed a development property in that market. Now what we have seen is some of that space, to Chris's point, where they may not be leased, that's where you see some of the concessions and a like occurring, but we're keeping our eye on that as well. Going back to Bill Stein's routes to be opportunistic and that's one of the reason Bill and Andy are always preaching that and Matt that we always keep the balance sheet pristine and be ready. So look, I think that's how, as Chris said, he talked about the advantages we're having in the market. We're having success. But we think that's because of our platform. And so look, we'll look to take advantage, otherwise, to the extent we can.

Chris Sharp

Analyst

Yes. And...

Simon Flannery

Analyst

And I think on churn...

Chris Sharp

Analyst

At all. Yes, I'll hit on the churn. I mean I think as you kind of saw in our slides in our remarks, we had an elevated overall exploration pool this year, but our churn was relatively in line with our historical average around 80%. We've got a pretty material step down in our exploration pool for next year and we're actually expecting our churn to be even, well, I'm sorry, our retention to be even better in 2020 than what we experienced in 2019. So we're pretty positive about our overall portfolio and the management of the lease it's coming back at us in 2020.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Ari Klein with BMO Capital. Please go ahead.

Ari Klein

Analyst

On the M&A front, clearly a lot on the plate with Interxion on Westin in the works. But Equinix recently announced the acquisition of Packet. I was interested in your views on whether Digital could pursue similar types of deals as you build out the interconnection platform and are those things customers are asking for?

Chris Sharp

Analyst

No. Thanks, Ari. This is Chris. I'm happy to talk through that. So it was definitely something that was expected in the market. I think the way that we look at this is we have a philosophical difference there, where we really look at our platform is being open. And one of the core things that we value is not competing with our customers and partners, and one of the things that we often look at is how can we invest in them is rather than compete with them. And so some of the work that we've done building out one of the largest SDN fabrics of the world with our service exchange which is powered by Megaport is something critical to us. But one of the other key elements inside of this is, it doesn't change our focus, right. We're building the only global fit for purpose data center platform and it's underpinned by an open ecosystem approach which we want to allow our partners to provide those higher value - higher value, higher up the stack services like Packet is providing. And so we see our approach in being a foundational element to a lot of our partners and customers, being able to service that bare metal opportunity that Packet has looked at, because there is a lot of customers have out there who have already solved that. And so we'd rather focus on solving for more of the data gravity issues and building out a fit for purpose capability for global reach or partnering with the capability if you will. So that's kind of how we view that transaction happening in the market, but we still see ourselves is aligning with our partners and customers and empowering their solutions in a unique way to solve for this enterprise need on a global basis.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Robert Palmisano with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Robert Palmisano

Analyst

I made a play that we make the call. So I want to follow up on that on the Packet thing that and possibly adding some additional tools. I mean, I understand the industry not wanting to compete with the customer is now consistently heard that. But do you think maybe there is a point where the industry is a little too religious on that and there could be some more commoditized thing the network being used by some other elements where you could be leaving some money on the table and wouldn't necessarily you take the customers are you getting more direct feedback from them? And then secondly, the follow up, what are you seeing as far as our potential rent roll downs and do you think there is a risk of any of higher churn this year for many customers that might walk rather than move right now? Thanks.

Bill Stein

Analyst

No, actually, I'll take the first part of that question. So we - one of the things that I think is great about Digital and we spend a tremendous amount of time is we're customer-led, right. And our extreme customer focus is we listen to what their needs are, and one of the elements is you do well right and just continue to do that. And one of the things that we have done very well, which is centered around PlatformDIGITAL is again that global reach and that repetitive nature of a fit for purpose product right. That's very unique in the industry that allows customers to do tab, cage or megawatt. But one of the things that we've looked at is in these higher up the stack services, it's not in our remit. And so when we see a lot of these things happen in other industries, either the service fails or that the service becomes pretty complacent rather quickly, so because it's an ever evolving landscape, particularly around bare metal and there's a lot of customers out there - are companies out there that are creating these bare metal solutions. What we see is happening in the market, as you have a purpose-built infrastructure for certain types of workloads right, and so a tuck-in acquisition like this will only give you so much benefit for so long and us being able to align with some of the bellwether powerhouses in the industry would be a better solution for our enterprises to really get the full benefit out of the deployment with Digital. And the second part of the question, I'll hand it over to Matt.

Matt Mercier

Analyst

Yes. I think your question again was kind of centered on churn and mark-to-market. And again, I kind of reiterate some of the comments. So we work through a 25% almost of our portfolio this year. We have a material step down. The amount is of our leases and contracts expiring next year. We feel bullish both on our ability to retain above average within that full expiring in this through this year down 2020, as well as our ability to maintain rates and be positive on that front.

Operator

Operator

This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Bill Stein for any closing remarks.

Bill Stein

Analyst

Thank you, Shaun. I'd like to wrap up our call today by recapping our 2019 highlights as outlined here on the last page of our presentation. First, we strategically expanded our global platform, entering Chile with an anchor lease with a leading global cloud provider, acquiring a key land parcel in South Korea and reaching agreements to explore joint venture in India with the Adani Group, and to combined with Interxion to create a leading global provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data center solutions with an enhanced presence in Europe. Two, we successfully executed on our private capital initiative, closing $1.4 billion of asset sales over the last three months and redeploying those proceeds into highly strategic investments. Three, we launched PlatformDIGITAL, a unique global data center platform designed to enable customers to scale digital business and we landed a record number of new logos in 2019. Last but not least, we further strengthen our balance sheet, raising $3.4 billion of long-term debt and preferred equity at a weighted average coupon of 3.1%. As I do every quarter, I'd like to conclude today by saying thank you to the entire Digital Realty team whose hard work and dedication is directly responsible for this consistent execution. Thank you all for joining us and we hope to see many of you on the Spring Conference Survey.

Operator

Operator

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.