Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Land Bank of the Philippines officials led by ALI president and CEO and AyalaLandLogistics Holdings Corp. chair Anna Ma. Margarita Dy (third from left) and Landbank president and CEO Ma. Lynette V. Ortiz (fourth from right) mark the signing of a P2.4-billion loan agreement. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The joint venture company of AyalaLand Logistics Holdings Corp. (ALLHC) and FLOW Digital Infrastructure will get a fresh P2.4-billion loan from Land Bank of the Philippines to fund the development of what is touted to be the largest “carrier-neutral” data center campus in Laguna province as the digital economy continues its rapid expansion.
ALLHC, a subsidiary of property giant Ayala Land Inc. that focuses on industrial estates, said in a recent statement that A-FLOW Properties Corp.’s loan represented the first tranche of its P10.8-billion 10-year loan program.
“This agreement marks a significant step forward in our shared commitment to develop the largest carrier-neutral data center campus in the Philippines,” A-FLOW president Amandine Wang said.
“We are excited to build an ecosystem to attract a combination of international hyperscale customers and local enterprise customers,” Amandine added.
A carrier-neutral data center has no restrictions on which telecommunications company can provide internet connection within the facility.
Phase 1A of A-FLOW’s three-building data center campus in Biñan will have 6 megawatts (MW) in information technology (IT) load capacity and is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
ALLHC and FLOW, which currently focuses on developing physical assets that make up the digital infrastructure ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific, announced their partnership in October 2022 “to meet the rapidly expanding needs of the digital economy.”
In December that year, they broke ground for the data center project that is expected to accommodate a total 36 MW-IT in capacity.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology expects local data center capacity to grow by 500 percent from the current 60 MW in the next two years due to increasing investor interest.
Telco giants such as Globe Telecom and PLDT Inc. have been investing in and aggressively developing their own data centers to accommodate growing demand.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority also show that the digital economy—composed of digital-enabling infrastructure, e-commerce, digital media/content and government digital services—accounted for P2.05 trillion, or 8.4 percent, of the country’s gross domestic product in 2023. —WITH A REPORT FROM ERICA ANN C. VILLASORDA INQ