HONG KONG/SYDNEY -A Blackstone-led consortium is taking out an around $A5.5 billion loan package to help fund the A$24 billion AirTrunk buyout, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, as the U.S. firm increases its Asian exposore.) said on Wednesday it had partnered with Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board to buy AirTrunk, which is considered Asia Pacific's largest hyperscale data centres business.
The financing would cover up to 50% of Blackstone's equity investment in the deal, said one of the sources, while the overall deal value includes AirTrunk's debt and its capital expenditure for committed projects.The consortium's purchase price would be over 20 times AirTrunk's projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation , the sources said.
AirTrunk's value increased during the sales process, which officially began in March, due to the increasing usage of AI which requires greater data centre capacity.