THE manager of Keppel DC Real Estate Investment Trust (Keppel DC Reit) announced on Tuesday (Feb 13) that DXC Technology Services will pay a settlement amount of S$13.3 million to the Reit&rsquo s facility manager by April 2024, as a &ldquo commercial and amicable resolution&rdquo to the payment dispute.

 

The Reit&rsquo s pro forma distribution per unit for FY2023 would have been increased by about 7 per cent, had the amount been received in the year.

 

The dispute pertains to DXC&rsquo s partial default of payment related to the provision of colocation services of a data centre in Serangoon North. The Singapore High Court endorsed Keppel DC Singapore&rsquo s interpretation of the agreement on Jan 12, 2024, after the Reit&rsquo s master lessee at Keppel DC Singapore 1 commenced legal proceedings against DXC in March 2022.

 

In the written judgment released in January, Keppel was claiming S$3 million from DXC as the sum outstanding from April 2021 to December 2021, as well as all losses it suffered as a result of DXC&rsquo s refusal to pay for the space it unilaterally gave up from Apr 1, 2021, to Mar 31, 2025. The case was scheduled to go to trial in February.

 

Before the settlement is made, the facility manager of Keppel DC Reit will file a notice of discontinuance of the current proceedings in the Singapore High Court, and both parties will release and discharge each other from all claims arising out of the matter.