Follows Indonesian financing last week
APAC data center firm DayOne has secured new debt funding for its Malaysian operations.
Bloomberg and local press report the GDS spin-off has successfully closed a RM 15 billion ($3.54 billion) equivalent multi-currency financing for sustainable digital infrastructure funding.
OCBC said in a statement on Wednesday that the funding is comprising a MYR 7.5 billion Murabahah term financing facility and a $1.7 billion offshore term loan facility.
Structured under the green loan principles, part of the proceeds from the dual-tranche financing (onshore Islamic and offshore conventional) are for refinancing and to support capital expenditure for DayOne’s data centers in Johor.
OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Berhad and its parent, Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, acted as joint coordinator and mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, and green financing coordinator, with OCBC Bank also acting as joint shariah adviser.
“We are honored to partner with DayOne in fulfilling its aspirations and financing needs in Malaysia. As one of the largest integrated financial services groups in the region, OCBC’s regional strength enables us to support both the onshore and offshore tranches of this landmark syndication,” said Tan Chor Sen, OCBC Bank CEO.
In a separate statement, Malayan Banking Bhd said it underwrote RMB 2.5 billion of the Islamic financing tranche for DayOne.
Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli, president & Group CEO of Maybank, said: “This landmark transaction represents Maybank’s largest Islamic financing commitment to the data center sector."
DayOne is the international unit of Chinese data center operator GDS. The company rebranded its Singapore-based international unit at the beginning of this year and has secured outside investment from the likes of SoftBank Vision Fund, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, Coatue Management, and Baupost Group.
DayOne’s portfolio currently comprises approximately 480MW of data center capacity in service and under construction and an additional 590MW held for future development across sites in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia (Johor), Indonesia (Batam), and Japan (Tokyo). The company recently broke ground on a site in Thailand.
In Malaysia, DayOne operates two facilities in Johor; one at the Nusajaya Tech Park and another in the Kempas Tech Park, offering a total of 120MW across the two sites.
Johor is an increasingly popular market for data center operators due to its close proximity to the financial hub of Singapore, so it would be no surprise if the company were looking to expand its presence there.
Reports that DayOne was seeking funding to fuel its Malaysian operations surfaced in March.
It secured a $412m loan for its planned Batam data center campus in Indonesia earlier this month.
