Polar DC Group Limited Secures €75 Million Palistar Capital Facility as 2026 Funding Tops €1 Billion

LONDON — Polar DC Group Limited, a developer and operator of AI-ready data centres, announced Nov. 5 that it has secured more than €1 billion in aggregate funding commitments during 2026, including a new €75 million development financing facility from Palistar Capital LP.

The company said the capital will advance its development pipeline in Finland and Germany. Existing shareholders H.I.G. Capital, LLC's value-added infrastructure investment strategy and LIAN Group also provided further investment, according to the announcement. Streif Capital Partners is the debt advisor to Polar.

Palistar Capital Development Facility Details

Palistar Capital has committed an initial €75 million development financing facility, with flexibility to upsize it through additional lender commitments. The facility is designed to support early-stage development, including land acquisition, grid connections, and design and permitting works, Polar said.

The €75 million is a corporate development facility rather than a loan tied to a named property. The company said the financing will allow it to progress new opportunities across its European platform.

Building on the €800 Million Nordic Bond

The latest funding follows Polar's €800 million Nordic bond issuance in June 2026. That bond, together with committed shareholder equity, was raised to support delivery of the company's contracted Norwegian developments, including DRA02 and HER01. HER01, in Herøya, is planned for an initial 40 megawatts of capacity powered by renewable hydroelectric energy.

Taken together, the bond, shareholder equity and the Palistar facility account for the more than €1 billion in aggregate 2026 commitments. The structure effectively divides Polar's capital by stage: bond and equity funding for Norwegian projects backed by customer contracts, and development capital for earlier-stage sites in Finland and Germany.

Executive Comments

Andy Hayes, CEO of Polar Data Centers, said: "Securing over €1 billion in funding is a significant milestone for Polar and demonstrates the confidence investors have in our business, our strategy, and our ability to deliver."

Hayes added: "Our successful bond issuance provides the financial foundation for our Norwegian developments, while the additional backing from H.I.G. Capital, LIAN Group, and Palistar supports our next phase of growth in Finland and Germany. We are building a scalable European platform designed specifically for the demands of AI."

Carras Holmstead, Investment Partner at Palistar Capital, said: "The additional funding reinforces Polar's strategy to develop high-performance, AI-ready data centres in locations offering access to reliable power, strong connectivity and favourable operating conditions."

Palistar Capital is an alternative asset manager focused on digital infrastructure investments. It is led by Managing Partner and Founder Omar Jaffrey and invests through direct asset ownership as well as by developing financing solutions for digital infrastructure companies.

Market Context: Power Access and Grid Timelines

Power availability and grid access have become central constraints for European data centre development. In major European markets, grid connections can take seven to 10 years, while a data centre itself may be built in roughly two to three years. That gap makes early control of land, power rights and permitting a key part of project delivery.

Demand is being driven by AI training and inference workloads, which require more power and specialized cooling than conventional enterprise facilities. One 2026 industry forecast estimates European data centre demand could rise to approximately 35 GW by 2030 from 10 GW today, requiring roughly $250 billion to $300 billion of infrastructure investment, excluding power generation.

Vacancy in the region is low. CBRE forecasts European data centre vacancy will fall to approximately 6.5% by the end of 2026. JLL reports 6.4% vacancy across the FLAP-D markets of Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, with Frankfurt at 3.1%. JLL estimates those five markets have 3.8 GW of live capacity, with 1.4 GW under construction and 2 GW in the planned pipeline. Colliers reports 12.5 GW of operational data centre capacity across EMEA and identifies power availability, grid timelines and planning constraints as the main barriers to growth.

The four largest cloud providers are expected to invest approximately $725 billion in capital expenditure in 2026, with most of the increase directed toward AI computing and data centre infrastructure.

Financing Trends and Risks

Data centre development is increasingly financed as digital infrastructure rather than conventional commercial real estate. Knight Frank notes that financing models are shifting toward infrastructure vehicles and other specialized structures, reflecting the sector's high power requirements, long development timelines and contracted-revenue profile.

Principal risks for developers include execution delays, grid-connection uncertainty, permitting, rising construction costs, and the possibility that customer demand or AI hardware requirements change before projects reach completion. Power-delivery schedules can exceed construction schedules by several years.

Polar describes itself as developing and operating AI-ready data centres across Europe and is backed by H.I.G. Capital and LIAN Group.

Sources

• Polar DC Group Limited press release: https://www.polardc.com/post/polar-achieves-1-billion-in-funding-milestone-to-accelerate-european-ai-data-centre-expansion