CDC completes $3bn debt financing and capital markets issuance with G+T's help

Gilbert + Tobin (G+T) has helped CDC Data Centres (CDC) to complete a debt financing and capital markets issuance transaction valued at $3bn.

The $308m US private placement (USPP) issuance under the deal is CDC’s first capital markets issuance. The transaction also involves the $2.7bn refinancing and upsizing of the group’s debt facilities.

According to G+T, 15 lenders participated in the bank debt deal “across multiple tranches ranging from two to seven years.” The USPP generated long-term funding in 10- and 15-year tranches.

For G+T lead partner Stuart Cormack, the deal “demonstrates that despite volatile capital markets there is still very strong appetite in the Australian and global debt markets for high quality borrowers.”

“With the demand for data centre space at an all-time high in Australia and New Zealand, and with no sign of this slowing down, CDC’s new debt structure make it exceedingly well placed to capitalise on this growth,” he said.

The funds will be applied to the establishment of new data centres. They will also increase liquidity and funding certainty for CDC’s development pipeline.

Moreover, the new bank debt facilities and USPP bolster operations flexibility and sustain CDC’s growth to drive business plan implementation, G+T said.

In working on the transaction, Cormack was supported by corporate advisory partner David Josselsohn. The partners also received support from lawyers Jack Naughton, James Soussa and Catrina Chen.