AirTrunk to give more than 330 staff $65,000 bonus

An Australian-founded data giant has set a high benchmark for staff bonuses with hundreds of employees set to watch $65,000 drop into their bank accounts to “celebrate” a monster recent deal.

AirTrunk will offer the big December top-up to more than 330 workers in a move that will cost about $22 million.

Staff were reportedly told the news on Monday and the company said it wanted to “celebrate AirTrunk’s recent success and the world’s largest data centre transaction”.

“AirTrunk has given over 330 employees a one off A$65,000 bonus each, totaling approximately A$22 million — in addition to existing incentive programs — in recognition of their contribution towards the success of AirTrunk so far — the culmination of many years of hard work and sacrifice from our team,” the company said.

“The bonus is one of many examples of how we recognise our people and empower them to reach greater heights.”

The end-of-year cash splash comes amid an acquisition by US private equity group Blackstone and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a $24 billion deal which will be closed within weeks.

AirTrunk is a data centre specialist “creating a platform for cloud, content and large enterprise customers”.

It was founded in Australia in 2015 and now operates 11 data centres in Sydney and Melbourne, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

Earlier this year, the company ranked in the top 10 of Australia’s Best Workplaces and made headlines for flying its workforce to Bali to “propel us into our next phase of growth”.

Speaking to staff at the September event, founder and chief executive Robin Khuda said: “We haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s coming up.

“That’s why we need to think differently, we need to continually innovate. That’s how we are going to be relevant to our customers and our stakeholders.”

More growth is on the cards, with AirTrunk saying “we have over 100 new roles opening up” in the next year.