SMBC, a member of SMBC Group, led and closed a $1.28 billion financing for QTS Realty Trust, LLC (“QTS”) to design and construct a new state-of-the-art data center campus. SMBC acted as the Sole Coordinating Lead Arranger, Sole Bookrunner, Green Loan Coordinator, and Administrative Agent.
The transaction is in addition to a June 2022 financing for a separate data center campus for QTS. For this transaction, SMBC also served as Sole Coordinating Lead Arranger, Sole Bookrunner, Green Loan Coordinator, and Administrative Agent. Both financings for QTS were green loans within the North American market. The environmental benefits of both projects and the alignment of the financing with the Green Loan Principles were confirmed via a third-party opinion.
Juan (JC) Kreutz, Managing Director and Co-Head of Global Structured Finance, Americas, said “SMBC is very committed to supporting our clients across the digital infrastructure sector. We’re delighted to expand our relationship with QTS in this space.”
“We are pleased to have led these two financings, providing an attractive source of capital for QTS,” said Quynh Tran, Managing Director and Co-Head of North American Infrastructure Finance at SMBC. “This latest transaction further builds upon SMBC’s focus and expertise on structuring transactions across product groups and geographic regions to provide our clients with the liquidity needed to meet their growth plans. Our team is very excited and pleased to provide QTS with green-finance solutions that will help to achieve their longer-term sustainability goals and metrics.”
QTS Realty Trust, LLC is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 9 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space within North America and Europe. Through its software-defined technology platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities. QTS is a Blackstone portfolio company.