ING seeks buyers for $500 million data-centre loan portfolio
Dutch lender ING is selling a US$500 million data-centre loan portfolio, including debt tied to OpenAI's Stargate AI venture. Bids are due by 19 November. The sale follows a broader tech selloff triggered by Democrat midterm victories that erased US$3 trillion in market value.
Dutch lender ING is seeking to sell a portfolio of data-centre loans worth about US$500 million (HK$3.9 billion) all at once, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The portfolio includes a US$25 million loan tied to a large data centre in New Mexico that forms part of the Stargate artificial-intelligence infrastructure venture backed by OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle, the report said. It also contains debt linked to operators such as Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne.
ING is soliciting bids for a dozen loans through a so-called bids-wanted-in-competition process, according to the report. Bids must be at least US$10 million in size and are due by 19 November.
ING declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The sale comes after a broader selloff that hit chipmakers and so-called neocloud companies particularly hard. The selloff, which followed the Democrats' sweeping victory in the US midterm elections, erased US$3 trillion in market value from S&P 500 companies, the report said. Data-centre operators Applied Digital, Cipher Digital and IREN each tumbled more than 14 per cent.