Scala Data Centers issues R$1.37 billion in green debentures with dollar swap

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Portguese.

From Scala Data Centers

Barueri, SP – August 20, 2024 – Scala Data Centers, the Latin American sustainable datacenter platform and leader in the hyperscale market, announces a new issuance of green debentures for the amount of R$1.37 billion (equivalent to US$250 million), with payment over a six-year term. The funds complement the investments already made by the company and will be used to complete the largest datacenter building in Latin America, SGRUTB09, with 36MW of IT capacity.

SGRUTB09, already at an advanced stage of construction, is located in Barueri (SP), on the Tamboré Campus – which, with 450MW of IT, is the largest of its kind in Latin America in terms of projected capacity – is dedicated to a single hyperscale client in the cloud and content sector. The total investment is US$350 million, with the remaining amount coming from Scala's own capital and its investors. The inauguration is scheduled for the second half of 2025.

The site is designed to support mixed cloud and AI workloads. The building features Scala’s FutureProof design, developed by Scala’s Center of Engineering Excellence (CoE), enabling the deployment of racks with variable and scalable densities to meet the growing demands of AI. In line with Scala’s sustainable practices, the new development offers high energy efficiency, with an average annual PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of less than 1.3 and a WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) of zero, as well as carbon neutrality.

"The demand for digital infrastructure is growing exponentially, accelerated by the advancement of Artificial Intelligence. In response, we are proud to issue our third green debenture, reaffirming our unwavering commitment to sustainability. This strategic initiative not only allows us to efficiently finance the expansion of our data centers, but also solidifies our position as a leader in sustainable and scalable technology solutions,” says Marcos Peigo, CEO and co-founder of Scala.

This was Scala's fourth debenture issuance, the third green one – thanks to the sustainable practices implemented since the company's founding, including the lowest PUE in Latin America and carbon neutrality in its operations since its founding, in addition to educational and professional qualification initiatives in the communities where it operates. Adding these three transactions, the company has already raised R$4.4 billion in investments through green debentures, a record in Brazil.

The new issue was coordinated by Bradesco BBI, together with the coordinating banks UBS BB, Santander and Itaú BBA. Market offers totaled 3.2 times the transaction value, a record for the company. As with the previous debenture, the transaction was carried out in reais with a swap for dollars to protect the company against exchange rate fluctuations and align the debt profile with the currency of contracts with its customers, whose revenues are mostly in US dollars.

Clayton Malheiros, the company’s CFO, highlights the presence of four of the five most traditional banks in Brazil, which reveals the consolidation of Scala’s financing strategy: “We are operating in a growing market, with extraordinary growth potential, but still little explored by the financial sector. Our effort has been to demonstrate how the datacenter sector works and highlight Scala’s exceptional position as a leader in this growth in Latin America. This approach has attracted increasing interest from banks that previously did not participate, but that now recognize the value and potential of our projects.”

About Scala Data Centers

Scala Data Centers is the leading sustainable data center platform in the Hyperscale market. Headquartered in Brazil and supported by DigitalBridge, it was developed to meet and exceed the growing demand for digital access. Scala has a highly qualified team of over 1,000 professionals and applies a flexible and innovative approach to offer exceptional colocation services to its clients, cloud software providers and large enterprises. We customize state-of-the-art solutions for each client in the construction of state-of-the-art data centers, with high availability, high energy efficiency and very high density, capable of supporting AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) workloads. All of this is combined with the best sustainability practices guided by the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) program.