Dutch bank ING is reportedly auctioning about $500 million of data center loans all at once, in an unusual sale days after Democrats swept the midterm elections and clouded the outlook for many projects, people familiar with the matter said. Bloomberg first reported the seller as anonymous and then later named ING.
ING is reportedly running the sale as a BWIC, short for bids wanted in competition, a format that asks many buyers to price the same holdings at once. The auction covers about a dozen loans, and bidders have until November 19 and must offer at least $10 million. ING has not disclosed a price, and no buyers have been named yet.
The portfolio includes debt tied to the data center operators Vantage Data Centers and CyrusOne. Another $25 million of the portfolio finances the New Mexico campus of Stargate, the joint venture of OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle.
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Oracle, the campus’s expected largest tenant, sent a force majeure notice in September to STACK Infrastructure, the developer, which Blue Owl Capital holds in its portfolio. The clause lets a party excuse its obligations after unforeseen events, and people familiar with the matter said Oracle wanted the right to delay payments if the project derails. Oracle said the project “remains on our planned schedule” and called such notices common, adding that they do not by themselves signal a delay.
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The auction follows a sharp selloff in chipmakers and neocloud companies, as investors feared tougher tech regulation after the Democratic win. Roughly $3 trillion of S&P 500 market value disappeared, and three data center operators, Applied Digital, Cipher Digital and IREN, shed more than 14% apiece.
In Texas, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat who defeated Republican Greg Abbott on Tuesday, said Thursday that the state should stop what it is doing with data centers until residents have legal protections.
