AirTrunk’s Owners Said to Seek A Waiver From Current Lenders

Sharon Klyne and Chien Mi Wong, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- The owners of AirTrunk, an Australian data center operator currently up for sale, plan to ask lenders to waive a clause in the company’s loans that would force it to refinance the debt if the firm is sold, according to people familiar with the matter.

Under the loan agreements, the sale of a controlling stake in AirTrunk will trigger a refinancing of its debt, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is not public. However, lenders can stay in the existing agreements if they agree to waive the change-of-control provisions, the people said.

Credit Agricole SA, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc have lined up A$7 billion ($4.6 billion) in financing, which represents all of AirTrunk’s existing borrowings, said the people familiar. That includes a A$4.6 billion sustainability-linked loan in 2023 and facilities borrowed by its other operating subsidiaries.

They have provided the pre-arranged financing to bidders to fill any potential funding gap in the event some lenders choose not to waive the change-of-control clause and exit the loans. Bloomberg News reported on the A$7 billion financing on last week.

AirTrunk’s owners — including Macquarie Asset Management and PSP Investments — have kicked off a sale process that has attracted interest from Blackstone Inc., DigitalBridge Group Inc. together with IFM Investors, and Global Infrastructure Partners LP, according to people familiar. They were seeking a valuation of around A$12 billion, Bloomberg News reported previously, making the transaction one of Asia Pacific’s biggest digital infrastructure deals this year.

The regional industry continues to benefit from the boom in artificial intelligence. KKR & Co. agreed to acquire a 20% stake in Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.’s regional data center business last year, while Blackstone announced the launch of its first wholly owned data center platform in Asia in 2022.

AirTrunk’s shareholders, Blackstone and IFM Investors declined to comment while Global Infrastructure Partners and DigitalBridge didn’t respond to requests outside business hours.

AirTrunk runs data centers in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia, according to its website. A group led by Macquarie’s infrastructure arm took control of the company in 2020 in a deal that valued it at about A$3 billion, Bloomberg reported at the time. Prior to that it was owned by investors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s special situations division.

--With assistance from Manuel Baigorri.