Covington Advises Investor on First Limited Recourse Data Center Financing in Saudi Arabia

Covington Advises Investor on First Limited Recourse Data Center Financing in Saudi Arabia

September 26, 2022

DUBAI—Covington advised Quantum Switch Tamasuk on the structuring of an accordion financing to design, build, and operate a portfolio of data centers across the Middle East. Quantum Switch Tamasuk is a joint venture between Tamasuk Holding Company, a Saudi diversified infrastructure development and investment company, and Quantum Switch, a leading British data center developer focused on emerging markets.

This inaugural data center within Quantum Switch Tamasuk’s portfolio is the first of its kind to secure limited recourse financing in Saudi Arabia. It successfully achieved financial close and is expected to begin commercial operation within Q4 2022. Once completed, the data center will serve as a new cloud region for a major technology company, which will allow companies and organizations in Saudi Arabia to achieve their digitalization objectives. The rapidly expanding demand for cloud services in Saudi Arabia is forecast to reach a market size of up to US$10 billion by 2030.

A French bank, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, acting as a structuring bank, fully underwrote the financing of the first data center, and syndicated part of the debt to a French institutional investor, Allianz Trade, and a Saudi commercial bank, Riyad Bank.

The core Covington team was led by Richard Keenan, with support from Marc Norman, Neisha Joseph, Rupert Harper, Ramy Ramadan, Ingrid Rechtin, and Joseph S. T. Roy.