Vantage Data Centers (a leading global provider of hyperscale data center campuses) announced that it has raised £600 million in securitized term notes, marking the first-ever securitization of data center assets in EMEA. The deal 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—which 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. The excess proceeds will be used for capital expenses and general corporate purposes. The notes have an anticipated five-year repayment date.
At Vantage’s ninth green debt issuance, the deal achieved a Green Bond designation via a Second-Party Opinion (SPO) from Morningstar Sustainalytics in March 2024. The use of the 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.
So far this year, Vantage has raised $1.7 billion in debt financing for its EMEA platform.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. We’re proud to continue our pioneering use of securitization 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.”
“We are proud to support Vantage with the inaugural data center securitization financing in our U.K. home market using our market leading expertise in digital infrastructure securitization to help unlock a new source of capital for the asset class in Europe,” said Gordon Beck, head of European corporate & sustainable securitization at Barclays.”
- Sharif Metwalli, chief financial officer for Vantage Data Centers
