Frankfurt-based tech company Northern Data , prominently known for bitcoin mining, has recently transformed its business model into cloud solutions and data center infrastructure. This shift has caught the attention of investment bank Berenberg, which started coverage of the company’s stock with a Buy rating and a price target of 39 euros ($41.84) per share, indicating a potential 53.2% upside from the current share price as of April 26. Listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Northern Data has three core divisions: Peak Mining for bitcoin mining, Taiga Cloud for cloud computing and Ardent Data Centers for data center infrastructure. Berenberg holds that the market has largely overlooked the growth prospects for Taiga Cloud’s offering. Shares of Northern Data are also traded over the counter in Italy and the United States, but trading frequency and volumes are expected to be very low. NB2-DE 1Y line The business transformation isn’t the first for the company, which has been listed since 2015. Formerly known as Biosilu Healthcare, the company was a pharmaceutical broker for Asian markets until early 2018. It then pivoted to crypto mining operations and was renamed Northern Bitcoin , making it one of the earliest listed firms to enter the crypto scene. In its current format, Northern Data continues to evolve with the acquisition of a data center in Pittsburgh earlier this year. The company said it will expand the facility fourfold by the second half of next year. Northern Data is also expected to benefit from advances that its subsidiary Ardent Data Centers has made in liquid-cooling technology in its crypto mining operations over the years. “We believe that the significant investments that Northern Data has made in the latest liquid-cooling mining technology and the expansion of the company at its existing North Dakota and new Texas sites should enable it to achieve high bitcoin production and mining profitability,” Berenberg analysts Gerhard Orgonas and Jenna Xu said in a note to clients on April 25. “We think that Northern Data’s knowhow in energy-efficient, state-of-the-art, liquid-cooled data centres makes it a competitive colocation services provider, especially given the increasing efficiency requirements for generative-AI applications.” The investment bank estimates that Peak Mining can achieve revenues of over 170 million euros by next year , with adjusted margins above 40%. But it’s Northern Data’s cloud solutions that analysts are eyeing. The company’s Taiga Cloud division is certified as an “Elite” partner of Nvidia , making it one of the largest providers of Nvidia-based cloud services in Europe. The investment bank forecasts annual revenues of around 400 million euros and adjusted profits of about 290 million euros from Taiga Cloud from 2026 onward. Northern Data’s cloud computing platform is expected to have 20,000 Nvidia AI chips, worth 730 million euros, by the third quarter of 2024, the note said. Northern Data’s founder and CEO Aroosh Thillainathan has also demonstrated his confidence in the company by announcing plans to acquire shares worth up to 30 million euros this year. As of Mar. 21, the company said that Thillainathan’s stake in Northern Data Group has increased to 3.8 million shares, representing approximately 7.15% of the business’ current share capital.
Sumber: www.cnbc.com
