KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Austrian circuit board maker AT&S has secured a US$250 million (RM1.1 billion) loan from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) to finance its substrate plant in Malaysia.

An additional up to US$150 million could be provided by local banks under the same sustainability-linked loan agreement with the IFC. The loan features incentives tied to AT&S lowering its annual greenhouse-gas emissions by 31% by the year ending March 31, 2028, from the baseline in 2022.

“Despite a challenging market environment, we are continuing to expand our plant in Kulim for AMD’s data-centre processors, [for which] AT&S Malaysia will start delivering high-end integrated circuit substrates soon,” said AT&S chief financial officer Petra Preining.

The loan will support AT&S to further develop the new plants in Kulim, Kedah, to produce advanced integrated circuit substrates that are an integral part of processors for high-performance computing, data centres, and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

To IFC, the investment and advisory arm of the World Bank which is focused on the private sector in emerging markets, the investment will help to advance Malaysia’s semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem, while supporting the country in achieving its sustainability goals.

“We’re excited to partner with AT&S on this financing, which ranks as one of the first sustainability-linked loans in Malaysia’s electrical and electronics products industry,” said Carsten Mueller, who is IFC’s regional industry director, manufacturing, agribusiness and services, Asia and the Pacific.