ESR Group, with support from CLP Power Hong Kong, has closed the first sustainability-linked loan (SLL) in Hong Kong for a brownfield data center project.
The HK$1.6 billion ($205 million) five-year loan facility will fund the conversion of a building in Kwai Chung, one of the major data center clusters in Hong Kong, into the modern and sustainable ESR Kwai Chung Data Centre HK1, which has a design IT power load of 21.3 megawatts.
ESR, APAC’s largest real asset manager powered by the New Economy, acquired the building in 2021 and signed an agreement with CLP Power in 2022 on green initiatives for future data centers and logistics centers in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.
ESR is targeting data center tenants who have strong sustainability-related credentials to rent the premises.
CLP Power, Hong Kong’s largest power company, is providing energy audit and advisory services to ESR to formulate the key performance indicators of the SLL. These include