(Bloomberg) -- Bain Capital-owned data center operator Chindata Group Holdings Ltd. obtained a $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 Corp. and KKR & Co. are bankrolling data centers across Asia to support an accelerating boom in AI development and services. They’re needed to support an estimated 25% 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 center developer and operator Yondr Group Ltd. raised a $150 million loan to help with construction of a data center campus in Johor’s Sedenak Tech Park. 

In the same month, Warburg Pincus-backed Princeton Digital Group closed a $280 million-equivalent green facility to build out its campus in the same location.

Chindata’s latest loan refinances a $500 million three-year syndicated borrowing, which attracted 15 participating lenders in syndication, from June 2022, according to a company statement at the time. 

Bain and Chindata didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lenders in this latest borrowing include DBS Group Holdings Ltd., China Merchants Bank Co., Credit Agricole SA, China Minsheng Banking Corp., Bank of East Asia Ltd.’s Singapore branch, Bayfront Infrastructure Management Pte., Fubon Bank Hong Kong Ltd. and China Citic Bank International Ltd.

Founded in 2015, Chindata runs hyperscale data centers in China’s major economic centers: 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 $3.2 billion.

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