Merlin Properties wary of spiking data centre revenue share

MERLIN Properties SOCIMI

02/06/2026 12:31

By Javi West Larrañaga
June 2 (Reuters) - Spanish real estate company Merlin Properties MRL.MC will work on limiting the growing revenue share of its AI data centres to avoid concentration risk, CEO Ismael Clemente told Reuters.    
Merlin is implementing a three-phase data centre investment plan which would see data centres account for up to 75% of its annual gross rents by 2032, up from just over 9% in the first quarter of 2026, but that proportion will need scaling back, Clemente said.
The company has already built three out of nine planned data centres in Spain and Portugal and expects to invest about €8 billion ($9.3 billion) in the sector by 2032.
Thanks in part to AI-driven growth, overall annual gross rents are projected to triple to around €1.6 billion by 2032 from 2025.
The bulk of Merlin's revenue still comes from offices, shopping centres and logistics.
Clemente says the company wants to "balance the relative weights a bit better" by 2032, with Merlin taking investment decisions depending on the property market cycle.
"But as long as this (data centres) wave remains a healthy one, we need to make the most of it," he  said.
About 88% of Merlin's assets are in Spain and 12% in Portugal, but the latter could dominate the company's assets in coming years, Clemente said, citing the government's willingness to support AI data centre expansion.
Clemente added that Merlin was close to being included in the MSCI Europe index, which would give its shares a boost.
($1 = 0.8598 euros)

Still a small egg in the basket https://reut.rs/3QdQdcL
 (Reporting by Javi West Larrañaga; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
 ((Javier.West@thomsonreuters.com; +34 918 35 61 12;))