CyrusOne CFO Kim Sheehy to Leave

CyrusOne CFO Kimberly Sheehy, who oversaw the Carrollton, Texas-based data center service provider’s IPO and conversion to Real Estate Investment Trust status in 2013, is leaving the company.

CyrusOne has appointed Gregory Andrews, a seasoned REIT CFO, as her replacement, the company announced this week. Andrews, 53, starts on 19 October, with Sheehy staying on as employee until the end of the year to help with the transition and then as consultant to help prepare the company’s annual earnings report for this year.

The company did not specify a reason for the change. Its CEO Gary Wojtaszek said in a statement that CyrusOne was grateful for Sheehy’s contributions and leadership in the IPO and REIT conversion and after.

She joined CyrusOne as chief administrative officer in 2011, coming from Cincinnati Bell, which acquired CyrusOne in 2010 before spinning it out three years later. She had been with Cincinnati Bell since 1996.

Most recently, Sheehy's replacement Andrews was CFO at Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust for about five years. Prior to that, he served for three years as CFO at Equity One. Both Ramco-Gershenson and Equity One are publicly traded REITs.

His annual base salary will be $425,000, plus stock options and bonuses, according to CyrusOne documents filed with the SEC.

CyrusOne reported $89 million in revenue for the second quarter –up 9 percent year over year. It had about 1.35 million square feet across 27 facilities in its data center portfolio as of the end of the quarter.

Its shares debuted on NASDAQ in January 2013 at $19 per share and after a somewhat rocky first half of 2013 have been rising steadily. They were trading at $32.66 in afterhours trading Wednesday.

CyrusOne was one of three data center providers that converted to REITs in recent years. Its competitor QTS floated on NYSE and flipped to REIT status in October 2013. Equinix started operating as a REIT early this year, but it has been a publicly traded company since 2000.

By converting to REITs, data center providers substantially reduce their corporate tax burden. Other major data center services players, Digital Realty Trust and CoreSite, have been operating as REITs for years.

QTS shares debuted in 2013 at $21 per share and have generally risen in price since, trading Wednesday at more than $43 per share.

Equinix started 2013 at $217 per share and fell to $180 per share by the end of the year but has since been steadily rising, trading today at above $273 per share.