BAIN Capital-owned data centre operator Chindata Group Holdings obtained a US$490 million five-year syndicated loan from banks keen to back Asia’s growing computing and data storage needs.
The borrowing, which refinances an existing facility for the firm’s Malaysian unit, attracted seven lenders in syndication, according to people familiar with the matter. It follows a series of artificial intelligence sector-related financings in recent months from Asia, as well as a March report that Bain was considering bringing in fresh backers to Chindata to lighten its balance sheet.
Tech companies and financiers like Microsoft and KKR are bankrolling data centres across Asia to support an accelerating boom in AI development and services. They are needed to support an estimated 25 per cent annual increase in demand for the infrastructure that underpins cloud services and generative AI.
Malaysia’s southern state of Johor – which borders Singapore – has been a particular beneficiary. In May, data centre developer and operator Yondr Group raised a US$150 million loan to help with construction of a data centre campus in Johor’s Sedenak Tech Park.
In the same month, Warburg Pincus-backed Princeton Digital Group closed a US$280 million-equivalent green facility to build out its campus in the same location.
Chindata’s latest loan refinances a US$500 million three-year syndicated borrowing, which attracted 15 participating lenders in syndication, from June 2022, according to a company statement at the time.
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Bain and Chindata did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lenders in this latest borrowing include DBS Group Holdings, China Merchants Bank, Credit Agricole, China Minsheng Banking, Bank of East Asia’s Singapore branch, Bayfront Infrastructure Management, Fubon Bank Hong Kong and China Citic Bank International.
Founded in 2015, Chindata runs hyperscale data centres in China’s major economic centres: Greater Beijing, the Yangtze River Delta around Shanghai and Greater Bay Area in the country’s south.
The company also has operations in India, Malaysia and Thailand, its website shows. Bain took the company private last year in a deal worth about US$3.2 billion. BLOOMBERG
