The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: HAYASHI Nobumitsu) signed on March 29 a loan agreement with NTT Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India Private Limited (NTT GDCI), an Indian group company of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), amounting to up to INR10.2 billion (JBIC portion). The loan is co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and MUFG Bank, Ltd., bringing the total co-financing amount to INR17.0 billion.
The loan is intended to provide the funds necessary for NTT GDCI to build and operate data centers in the state of Maharashtra, India.
In the Medium-Term Management Strategy announced in May 2023, NTT set a goal of investing at least approximately JPY1.5 trillion in its data center business over five years with the aim of further expanding its data center infrastructure, which is the third largest in the world. To this end, India’s data center market is crucial for NTT Group. The government of India launched its Data Center Policy 2020, which envisions to make India a global data center hub. The market is expected to expand amid the prospect of further increases in data traffic due to the growing use of digital technologies, such as generative AI, e-commerce, and social media.
The loan will provide financial support for the overseas business expansion of NTT and help improve the business environment for Japanese companies and enhance their supply chain resilience by ensuring secure telecommunications infrastructures whose reliability and safety are assured. The loan will also contribute toward maintaining and strengthening the international competitiveness of Japanese industries. In addition, JBIC held a high-level meeting under a trilateral memorandum of understanding with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) on March 6, 2024, and agreed to consider and deepen cooperation to contribute to the growth of digital infrastructure in India. The loan is a measure to support India under the trilateral partnership.
As Japan’s policy-based financial institution, JBIC will continue to support the overseas business expansion of Japanese companies by drawing on its various financial facilities and schemes for structuring projects, including local currency loans.
