Kao Data Completes £206M Debt Raise with Deutsche Bank to Accelerate Data Centre Platform Expansion

• New debt facility, provided by leading data centre lender, Deutsche Bank, is extendable to £356 million, supporting the accelerated demand for infrastructure engineered for AI and advanced computing.  
• New funding will help propel growth across Kao Data's operational and planned assets and will support its expansion plans across the UK and Europe.
• Further, Kao Data's sustained growth provides successful refinancing of existing lenders, one of which is Downing LLP.

LONDON, Jan. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Kao Data, the specialist developer and operator of data centres engineered for AI and advanced computing, has announced it has successfully completed a new, £206 million debt raise, with an accompanying accordion facility extendable to £356 million, via one of the world's leading lenders to the data centre sector, Deutsche Bank.

The announcement marks a significant step forward for Kao Data, providing debt financing to fast-track its new contracted developments with customers across the cloud, AI and financial services, and the build-out of its KLON-06 data centre in Slough.

Deutsche Bank, which has vast experience in the structuring of sustainable, digital infrastructure assets, has provided financing to drive the expansion of the business in line with growing customer demand for GPU-powered computing. The funding will support Kao Data's expansion into next-tier markets across the UK and continental Europe. In late 2023 Kao Data also established a new capital structure with its shareholders Infratil Ltd, Legal & General Capital, and Goldacre Noé Group, which will provide incremental equity investment to accelerate Kao Data's strategic growth plans.

The debt facility, for which Deutsche Bank have been named mandated lead arranger and sole underwriter, will allow Kao Data to consolidate its debt with a single, large financial services organisation, refinancing those existing lenders who have played an integral role in the advancement of its secure, highly scalable, and sustainable data centre platform during the last decade.

As such, a proportion of the new funding will repay Downing LLP, a UK-based responsible investment management firm founded in 1986, which invests across a range of sectors, including renewable energy, infrastructure, healthcare, operational real estate and property development. Downing has partnered with Kao Data since its earliest development debt requirements and has subsequently helped fund its growth from a single-site development to a UK-wide platform.

"The success of our new debt raise is testament to the growth of our business, our reputation for industry-leading operations and technical delivery, and both the scale and demand for world-class infrastructure, engineered for AI," said Matthew Harris, CFO, Kao Data. "I'd like to thank our lenders for their trust in our philosophy and ambition, which has been fully vindicated during the last decade, and all who have played an instrumental part in the evolution of the Kao Data platform. Looking forward, we are delighted to be working with one of the world's leading digital infrastructure lenders in Deutsche Bank." 

"Since our first meeting with the company's founders in 2015, we've been early believers in Kao Data's expertise, mindset, and its vision for growth. We were delighted to provide Kao Data with growth capital funding in 2017 and saw an attractive opportunity to support them in the development of their sustainable data centre platform," said Tom Phillips, Head of Institutional Business Development, Downing. "During the term of our investment, Kao Data has proved itself as an excellent example of what we look for in the businesses we like to back: a high-quality management team with a compelling business case. We are proud to have helped the company establish a firm foothold as a leader in one of the world's most competitive, international data centre markets, whilst also delivering a successful return for our funds."

Kao Data's new financial capability with Deutsche Bank reinforces an exceptional twelve months for the organisation, which has secured several key customers from within the AI, hyperscale cloud, research, and financial services sectors. In May 2023 Kao Data also announced a new £350M investment into a state-of-the-art Greater Manchester data centre, followed by the completion of its KLON-02 facility in Harlow in November.  

Kao Data's advanced data centre portfolio now includes more than 160MW of IT-load, either currently operational, under development or planned – all of which is underpinned by the highest energy efficiency, sustainability, and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) credentials.

To learn more its data centre platform, engineered for AI, visit the website.

*Editors note: Kao Data was advised by Broadstone Capital Advisors, Eversheds Sutherland, Amberside Advisors, BDO, and Turner & Townsend.

About Kao Data

Kao Data leads the industry, pioneering the development and operation of data centres engineered for AI and advanced computing. With hyperscale-inspired facilities east and west of London, and northern England's largest data centre planned for Greater Manchester, we are home to technology's most demanding computing infrastructure.

Our award-winning, NVIDIA DGX-Ready certified data centres are designed, engineered, and operated by one of the industry's most respected teams. Together, this provides colocation customers deploying mission critical AI, enterprise, and cloud workloads with a secure, scalable, and sustainable compute environment, backed by a guarantee of 100% uptime.

Kao Data's data centre portfolio includes more than 160MW of IT load, either currently operational, under development or planned – all of which is under-pinned by the highest energy efficiency, sustainability and ESG credentials.

Backed by leading international investors, and with several pioneering 'industry firsts' to our name, Kao Data represents the future in industrial scale, high-capacity data centres for AI and the next generation of compute.

Kaodata.com

About Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank provides retail and private banking, corporate and transaction banking, lending, asset and wealth management products and services as well as focused investment banking to private individuals, small and medium-sized companies, corporations, governments, and institutional investors. Deutsche Bank is the leading bank in Germany with strong European roots and a global network.

About Downing LLP

Downing is a responsible investment manager established in London in 1986. We currently manage £1.9 billion of assets under a broad range of investment mandates across our funds, investment trusts and tax-efficient products. As a certified B Corporation, we are focussed on creating a sustainable future, our key investment areas are renewable energy, infrastructure, property and healthcare.