CIMB Islamic signs $100mln facility with HP

The facility to be used for financing HP’s 32-acre “next generation data centre” in Cyberjaya.

CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd on Tuesday formalised the largest-ever term financing facility to date with a multinational company when the bank, a unit of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, signed a 12-year US$100mil facility based on the syariah concept of Bai’ Al ‘Innah with Hewlett-Packard (HP) Multimedia Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

The bank was represented by CIMB Group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, who signed on behalf of CIMB Islamic, while HP was represented by its enterprise services senior vice-president for Asia Pacific and Japan, Kevin Jones.

The Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC) chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali witnessed the signing of the agreement.

The facility would be used to finance the first phase of HP’s 32-acre “next generation data centre” in Cyberjaya, which formed part of the company’s 28.3ha integrated campus.

Nazir said the facility, at US$100mil, was a significant boost for the local Islamic finance industry as well as to the country’s ambition’s of becoming a leading global Islamic financial centre.

“It is the largest facility ever by CIMB Islamic because this is a direct funding compared with sukuk fund-raising which is the usual route taken by foreign companies when taking up Islamic financing,” he said at a briefing following the signing ceremony between CIMB Islamic and HP.

View the full story in The Malaysian Star.