KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): Sime Darby Property Bhd (KL:SIMEPROP) said on Monday its New Economy Venture fund has set up a sukuk programme to raise up to RM2.6 billion.
The seven-year programme will finance the fund’s development pipeline, including its two previously announced seed assets, Sime Darby Property said in a statement. The sukuk is poised to be the world’s first Islamic bond financing for data centre infrastructure.
Sime Darby Property is the first developer to pair sukuk financing with a real estate private equity fund, the company said. “This strengthens the group’s ability to capture high-value opportunities arising from the increasing demand for digital infrastructure in Malaysia.”
New Economy Venture was launched earlier this month to invest up to RM1.25 billion in data centres and industrial projects within Sime Darby Property’s townships in Malaysia.
The fund, backed by the Employees Provident Fund among others, has secured two seed assets within its flagship township, Elmina Business Park and City of Elmina, which represent about 85% of the target fund size.
The sukuk programme “reinforces our efforts to develop high-quality, new economy assets in the industrial, logistics and data centre space”, said Sime Darby Property group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Azmir Merican.
New Economy Venture has also introduced a Green Finance Framework that will provide structured impact evaluations, particularly for data centre-led development portfolios.
“This capital framework positions us to accelerate our development pipeline while strengthening our fund management capabilities,” Azmir added.