The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development bank, will invest up to RM 300 million (US$ 75.8 million) in an Islamic bond issued by Sime Darby Property NEV, a member of Sime Darby Property Berhad Group, to support the development of data centers in Sime Darby Property’s industrial township, Elmina Business Park, 30 km from Kuala Lumpur.
According to a press release, the data centers will be designed to be energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. Together with Sime Darby Property NEV’s green finance framework, developed with help from ADB’s GSS+ initiative, the bond, issued under a sukuk wakalah structure, qualifies as green financing as defined by international sustainable bond standards.
“By combining scalable, energy-efficient data centers with green Islamic financing, this project supports Malaysia’s digital transformation and helps ensure the benefits of cloud services and digital platforms reach more people and businesses,” said Nianshan Zhang, ADB Director General for Southeast Asia. “This partnership with Sime Darby Property marks a new milestone in strengthening digital infrastructure and deepening our private sector engagement in Malaysia.”
The investment represents the first Malaysian sukuk for digital infrastructure. A sukuk wakalah is an Islamic financing structure where an agent deploys funds into Shariah-compliant assets or businesses. It is ADB’s first Islamic finance investment.
ADB says the investment supports its commitment to mobilize as much as US$ 20 billion for digital corridors, data infrastructure, and AI-ready economies across Asia and the Pacific by 2035. The financing also aligns with Malaysia’s MyDigital initiative, the national roadmap for embedding digital services into the economy. The initiative is currently in Phase 3, running from 2026 to 2030, in which the country aims to position itself as a leader in digital content and cybersecurity.
Maybank Islamic Berhad and OCBC Al-Amin Bank Berhad have also committed to invest in the sukuk while the Credit Guarantee & Investment Facility, an ADB trust fund, is providing a partial guarantee. ADB also acted as the joint sustainability structuring advisor.
“As the general partner and manager of the NEV Fund, we are creating an institutional investment platform that enables us to develop high-quality build-to-suit assets required by global technology operators programmatically,” said Azmir Merican, Sime Darby Property Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We are the first developer in Malaysia to bridge sukuk financing with an institutional real estate private equity structure, supported by a gold-graded green finance framework that reinforces our commitment to sustainable growth and disciplined capital management.”
Malaysia is emerging as a key player in the Southeast Asian data center market. According to Arizton Advisory & Intelligence, the data center market in Malaysia was valued at US$ 6.15 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.85 percent to reach US$ 11.4 billion by 2031.