Equinix CEO ‘Very, Very Focused On Growth’ As Company Ups Guidance

‘Looking ahead to the next six months, we are confident in Equinix’s trajectory and the strength of our distinct and resilient market position,’ Equinix CEO Adaire Fox-Martin told investors during the company’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Equinix CEO Adaire Fox-Martin told investors there are strong demand signals for its data center and colocation products from some of the largest names in enterprise during the company’s second quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

“Our pipeline is the most robust we have seen and speaks to the demand in the market for the products and services offered by Equinix,” she said. “As we work to solve smarter, we are focused on simplifying the consumption of our digital infrastructure and interconnection solutions for our customers.”

Equinix grew its second quarter revenue 4 percent year over year to $2.25 billion. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company posted net income of $368 million, up 22 percent year over year. Earnings per share came in higher, up 19 percent from a year earlier to $3.75.

The company also raised its annual revenue guidance by $58 million and expects growth of 6 to 7 percent on sales of $9.23 billion to $9.33 billion. Equinix said it closed 4,100 deals this quarter with 3,300 customers. The company is targeting a key measure of data center value, adjusted funds from operations growth, to hit $50 per share by the end of the year, up from its current $37.67 to $38.48 guidance.

“We are very, very focused on growth,” Fox-Martin said. “This is a very powerful aspect of our strategy, and of course, is an important aspect of driving, ultimately, (adjusted funds from operations) per share.”

Fox-Martin said the channel played a key role in the delivery of Equinix revenue last quarter. Last quarter, the company launched a new channel program in Indonesia.

“We saw a very steady resale motion in in our channel business, although in Q2 referrals were slightly lower,” she said. “We still continue to execute very closely with our channel partners, and still continue to evolve how we execute those parts of our business relevant to our (partner) ecosystem.”

Equinix announced wins with eBay, Hyundai, EssilorLuxottica, Woolworths, and Schneider Electric, which is using Equinix Fabric to build out a multi-cloud system. Equinix Fabric is an “advanced interconnection solution that offers software-defined direct connections to multiple cloud services from a single physical port,” a description of the product reads.

“There are some trends that we’re seeing right across the infrastructure landscape,” she told analysts. “Trends towards distributed workloads, trends towards cloud connectivity, and the importance of that. We’re absolutely seeing density increase in the footprints within our data centers, and we’re seeing deployment sizes trend up in the in the enterprise and retail space …Looking ahead to the next six months, we are confident in Equinix’s trajectory and the strength of our distinct and resilient market position.”

Equinix said it currently has 59 data center projects underway in 34 cities across 25 countries. It launched nine new data center projects this quarter in Bangkok, Chennai, Chicago, Dallas, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London, Montreal and Silicon Valley, the company said in a press release.

“We believe we continue to stand apart with a powerful combination of differentiators: Our diverse and carrier-neutral ecosystems, rich interconnection capability, and unparalleled global presence in key metros position us exceptionally well to deliver continued value to our customers, growth to our business, and returns for our shareholders,” Fox-Martin said on the call.