(Credit: AirTrunk)AirTrunk has more than doubled its original $1.35 billion sustainability-linked loan (SLL) to $2.96 billion toward refinancing its existing debt facilities and supporting the company’s expansion across the Asia Pacific and Japan region while increasing its focus on sustainability improvements, especially in terms of energy-intensive data centers.
This marks the largest SLL for a data center operator in the world, AirTrunk said.
With this SLL, the company will link its financing to environmental commitments, including carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and water use. As data centers are known for being energy-intensive, many tech companies have been seeking carbon-free energy sources to power their facilities. Water consumption is another sustainability concern as some large data centers consume over 4.5 million gallons of water per day.
AirTrunk said it hopes to set a standard for the sector’s sustainable development with this loan and its continued implementation of sustainable practices.
“In the last two years, we have announced the development of more than half a gigawatt of new capacity in APJ,” said Prashant Murthy, AirTrunk's chief financial and commercial officer. “This landmark SLL ensures that as we scale across the region, we do so as sustainably as possible, driving the industry forward by redefining sustainable financing standards. We will continue to work with our customers, employees, investors, financing partners, regulatory bodies, and communities to drive innovations like these to advance a sustainable future.”
In March, AirTrunk committed to ESG targets by linking 100% of its debt funding platform. They’ve invested in social impact initiatives in Japan in four areas, including equal digital access, STEM Education, biodiversity and conservation, and innovations in research and development. The recent financing will also work towards gender diversity and gender pay equity within the organization.
The company has a set goal of zero emissions by 2030 and has raised over $3.86 billion in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) financing across its APJ platform.
AirTrunk has also unveiled four new developments since its initial corporate SLL in September of 2021, including data centers in Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Its APJ data center platform allows for nearly 1.38 gigawatts of capacity of public cloud and AI platforms.
Joint Sustainable Structuring Agents for the SLL refinance included Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC, and DBS, ING, Morgan Stanley, and MUFG were lead arrangers, underwriters, and bookrunners for the loan.
“This transaction not only further solidifies AirTrunk’s strong sustainability commitment and positions the company as a global leader in the data center sector, it also sets an exemplary benchmark for the industry," said Antoine Rose, Crédit Agricole's head of sustainable banking for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. "Crédit Agricole is proud to have played a pivotal role in this landmark transaction as a sustainability structuring agent."
