STT GDC sets industry benchmarks in sustainable financing as the first sustainability linked perpetual issuance in Asia
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), one of the world’s fastest-growing data centre providers, announced that it has on 8 January 2024 issued S$450 million of Sustainability-Linked Perpetual (SLP) securities under the company’s S$1.5 billion multicurrency debt issuance programme. The SLP is priced at 5.7% after a strong book building process. Net proceeds from the SLP will be used for general corporate purposes, including but not limited to refinancing of existing borrowings and financing of investments, acquisitions, general working capital and/or capital expenditure of the company and its subsidiaries.
This is STT GDC’s debut perpetual securities offering and marks several firsts in the industry — the first Singapore dollar denominated SLP, the first public benchmark SLP in Asia, as well as the first public perpetual by a pure play data centre globally.
In 2022, STT GDC published a Sustainability-Linked Financing Framework that transforms the company’s commitment to be net carbon-neutral by 2030 into concrete action plans, through the issuance of sustainability-linked financial solutions including but not limited to, bonds and l****. The framework upholds STT GDC’s sustainability commitments with stringent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Sustainability Performance Targets (SPTs), ensuring advancement of mid-to long-term sustainability goals. The SLP is aligned to STT GDC’s sustainability strategy, with STT GDC having set a sustainability performance target of increasing the percentage of renewable energy in total electricity consumption to 60% by 2026.
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This SLP will fuel STT GDC’s global growth plans, particularly to strengthen its geographical reach, as well as meet future demands for purpose-built digital infrastructure. The global surge in data, AI, and machine learning is driving demand for data centres; IDC1 predicts 291 zettabytes (ZB) of digital data to be generated in 2027, driven by enterprise data growing at a 28% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Southeast Asia is seeing a rise in data centre investments to meet this demand; highlighted by STT GDC’s recent investments in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.
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“The strong response from the investor community for our maiden perpetual securities issuance is testament to our commitment to achieve our growth and expansion strategy while not compromising our sustainability goals,” said Nelson Lim, Group Chief Financial Officer, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. “Our inaugural SLP issuance, leveraging on our Sustainability-Linked Financing Framework, attracted keen interest from investors, including top-tier institutional investors, seeing a book-building process that saw strong demand from top-tier institutional investors, reflected in the peak order book in excess of S$1 billion.”
This announcement is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor is it an offer, solicitation, or sale of the Series 003 Perpetual Securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
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