November 14, 2023 - Digital Edge has secured a $335 million green loan for its upcoming South Korean data center.
The APAC-focused operator secured its first green loan to support the first phase of the previously announced 100MW data center project in Seoul (known as SEL2), South Korea.
The financing consortium includes both international and domestic banks and the loan will be issued in two tranches, a fixed tranche and a floating tranche over a five-year term.
The joint coordinators for the financing were Crédit Agricole CIB and ING Bank.
Digital Edge CFO Jonathan Walbridge said: “Our first green loan is a key milestone in our growth journey and is evidence of how the economic performance of our platform goes hand in hand with our commitments to sustainability."
Andrew Thomas, Stonepeak senior managing director, added: "We share Jonathan and the Digital Edge management team's excitement about the green financing for SEL2, which is a testament to Digital Edge's ability to execute projects abiding by the highest environmental standards while also prioritizing the needs of its customers.”
Located in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, the upcoming SEL2 will be the largest commercial data center project in South Korea. Announced in April 2022 with ground broken in April 2023, SEL2 is expected to go live in Q3 2024 with an anchor tenant in place for phase one. The site will utilize Bloom Energy fuel cell technology and operate with a PUE Of 1.27.
Martijn Hoogerwerf, head of sustainable finance APAC, ING, added: "The data center financing will further enhance Digital Edge's rapid growth, and boast best-in-class energy efficiency, thereby reducing its carbon footprint."
New York-based private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners formed Digital Edge in August 2020. CEO Samuel Lee previously served as president of Equinix’s Asia Pacific business.
In April 2021, Digital Edge entered South Korea through the acquisition of Sejong Telecom’s data center assets in Seoul and Busan.
Whether general-purpose sustainability-linked loans or project-specific green bonds, sustainability-linked financing is quickly becoming a common trend amongst data center and telco firms. The likes of Equinix, AirTrunk, ESR, SunEvision, Verizon, Aligned, Telefónica, NTT, Digital Realty, Flexential, and Nabiax have all raised new green-tied funds or converted existing debt to include interest rates tied to sustainability and ESG goals.
