The company concludes its 10th securitisation since 2018 and ninth green financing to drive continued, sustainable developments across the region.
Vantage Data Centers, a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses, has announced it has raised £600 million in securitised term notes, marking the first-ever securitisation of data center assets in EMEA.
The transaction includes an additional £100 million in unfunded Variable Funding Notes. The term notes are rated A-, A (low) and A by Standard & Poor’s, Morningstar DBRS and Scope Ratings, respectively.
Led by Barclays, who acted as sole structuring advisor and sole green structuring advisor, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) Nikko Capital Markets, the notes will be used to refinance £480 million of debt for two facilities (CWL11 and CWL13) on Vantage’s 148MW Cardiff, Wales campus – one of the largest hyperscale data center campuses in Europe.
Excess proceeds will be used for capital expenses and general corporate purposes. The notes have an anticipated five-year repayment date.
Marking Vantage’s ninth green debt issuance, the transaction achieved a Green Bond designation via a Second-Party Opinion (SPO) from Morningstar Sustainalytics in March 2024. The use of proceeds will lead to progress on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and will support the research and development of next generation sustainable features to minimize Vantage’s carbon footprint.
“Vantage’s pursuit of innovative funding vehicles to drive the company’s continued global development is core to our ability to rapidly meet demand for the critical infrastructure necessary to support cloud adoption and AI,” said Sharif Metwalli, Chief Financial Officer, Vantage Data Centers. “We’re proud to continue our pioneering use of securitisation financing in the data center sector, specifically in Europe, and look forward to our ongoing development of flexible, sustainable digital infrastructure around the globe to enable the growth of our customers.”
Gordon Beck, Head of European Corporate & Sustainable Securitisation, Barclays, said: “We are proud to support Vantage with the inaugural data centre securitisation financing in our UK home market using our market leading expertise in digital infrastructure securitisation to help unlock a new source of capital for the asset class in Europe.”
As of June 2024, Vantage has raised US$1.7 billion in debt financing for its EMEA platform.
