Shares in Digital 9 Infrastructure (DGI ) leaped back to life today, jumping 23% after the fund gained regulatory approval from Iceland for the sale of its key asset, data centre operator Verne Global. The disposal to French infrastructure investor Ardian should be complete by the end of the quarter and free up cash to repay most of the fund’s debts as it commences a wind-down.

The approvals, which included foreign direct investment approval in Finland and unconditional merger control approval in Iceland, as well as the thumbs-up from the fund’s debt facility providers, all came in this week, marking a fast turnaround.

In a stock exchange notice, DGI9 emphasised that, at this stage, the change of control consent was still conditional but it was confident all conditions had either already been satisfied or would be shortly before completion at the end of the month.

The shares rallied to 23.3p, a 77% discount to net asset value, which is where they were a month ago before the Icelandic regulatory approval body opened a Phase II investigation into the Verne deal that could have lasted 125 days.

Liberum’s Shonil Chande said receiving approval so quickly was the optimal outcome, while Peel Hunt’s Anthony Leatham said the approvals paved the way for DGI9 to accelerate its balance sheet deleveraging and make progress on the managed wind-down, which shareholders are voting on later this month.