Clifford Chance and Rahmat Lim & Partners have represented data centre developer Yondr Group in securing over $900 million in project financing for its hyperscale data centre in Johor, Malaysia. Milbank and Zul Rafique & Partners advised the finance parties.

The financing, which is led by a consortium of seven financial institutions, including the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC), will fund the construction and initial operation of a 98-megawatt (MW) facility. 

This project is part of a larger data centre campus planned in Johor's Sedenak Tech Park, which will have a total capacity of 340MW, set to become the largest hyperscale data centre campus in Southeast Asia.

Other lenders in the consortium include DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, ING, Natixis CIB, and BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners.

The deal represents Yondr's first major debt financing in the region and was made possible through a special exemption granted by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), allowing the company to bypass the usual approval process for foreign currency borrowings from Bank Negara Malaysia.

"This transaction marks the start of an exciting wave of data centre development in Malaysia, driven by the accelerating demands of technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud computing and blockchain," said Thomas England, partner at Clifford Chance, in a statement.

The project comes amid growing investor interest in the booming data centre market in the Asia Pacific region, fueled by rapid growth in demand for services based on artificial intelligence.

Yondr Group has over 420MW of capacity committed to hyperscalers, with potential to expand to over 1GW.

The Clifford Chance team advising Yondr was led by England, supported by counsel Chin Seng Chew and Jervis Chan, along with associate Ivan Ting. Partners Matthew Buchanan and Francis Edwards, senior associates James Thornton and Leland Hui, and associates Thomas Hobbs Martin and Mae Yen Teoh also assisted.

The Rahmat Lim team comprised partner Kelvin Loh, senior associate Kimberley Yee, and associate Lee Yvonne Bianca.

Milbank fielded a team led by partners James Orme, David Zemans, and Dan Bartfeld. The team also included special counsel Rosaline Yusman, of counsel Desiree Woo, and associates Deirdre Swift, Wei Sheng Lee, An Guo, Kris Singh, Denisa Neagoe, and Jade du Berry. 

The Zul Rafique team was led by partners Loh Mei Mei and Celine Rangithan, and included senior associate Christin Wong and associate Ameelia Husna.