Merlin Properties, the Spanish property group whose data centre business is about 80% CoreWeave according to a Jefferies note, has signed a โฌ3.75 billion syndicated loan. The company disclosed it in a filing to Spain’s securities regulator, the CNMV, on 2 November, as reported by Europa Press and Cinco Días. Merlin said the money will restructure its corporate debt and cover future financing needs, in particular the development of its data centre programme.
The deal was signed with a group of Spanish and international banks and closed at an average cost of 100 basis points over mid-swaps, according to the filing as reported by Europa Press and EFE. Merlin said it lengthens the average life of its debt from 3.7 years to 5.3 years and removes its debt maturities for the next three years.
The key insight: Merlin Properties, whose data centre business is about 80% CoreWeave according to a Jefferies note, says a €3.75 billion syndicated loan clears its debt maturities for the next three years at about 100 basis points over mid-swaps; Cinco Días reports the third phase of its 724 MW data centre plan, an estimated €4.406 billion, is not yet funded.
The financing has two tranches, Europa Press reports. Tranche A is a term loan in two drawdowns, both maturing on 30 April 2032. The first, of โฌ725 million, is available on 3 November to repay early a syndicated loan due in 2028, Merlin says. The second, of โฌ1.525 billion, is available until 30 April 2027 to repay a โฌ500 million bond due on 3 July 2027, according to the filing as reported.
Tranche B is a revolving credit facility, which Merlin increased from โฌ740 million to โฌ1.5 billion, according to the filing as reported by Europa Press. Separately, Merlin repaid an โฌ800 million bond that matured on 2 November using cash from financings arranged in earlier years, the company said.
Merlin said the combination strengthens its credit profile while keeping its loan-to-value ratio at 25%. Cinco Días describes the deal as one of the biggest financing operations in the history of Spain’s property sector.
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Merlin Properties’ data-centre programme by phase: 64 MW built (EUR 614 million), 254 MW under construction for 2030 (EUR 2.756 billion) and 406 MW more for 2032 (EUR 4.406 billion estimated, not yet funded), 724 MW in total. Source: Cinco Días, 2 November 2026.
The Data Centre Plan
Merlin is building its data centres in phases, Cinco Días reports. The first phase, 64 MW with โฌ614 million of investment across Getafe (Madrid), Barcelona and Álava, is built, and Cinco Días says it is expected to be operationally stabilised in 2027. The second, 254 MW with โฌ2.756 billion of planned investment, is under construction and due to be complete in 2030, according to Cinco Días; Cinco Días says Merlin already has the funds for it after its latest capital increase.
A third phase adds 406 MW for 2032 with an estimated investment of โฌ4.406 billion, for which Merlin does not yet have the funds, Cinco Días reports. It says the three phases total 724 MW, which Merlin expects to bring in about โฌ1.14 billion of revenue by 2032.
By our arithmetic, the three phases add up to about โฌ7.78 billion of planned investment, or roughly โฌ10.7 million per megawatt. The โฌ3.75 billion loan equals about 85% of the third phase’s estimated cost, though Merlin has not said how much of the loan will go to data centres.
Cinco Días also lists a fourth phase at Navalmoral de la Mata in Cáceres, split into a first stage of 200 MW and a further 1.2 GW. The company owns property worth โฌ13.508 billion, including offices, shopping centres and logistics, according to Cinco Días.
The CoreWeave Link
We reported on 21 October that Merlin told analysts CoreWeave accounted for 8.6% of its total rents in the first half of 2026 but for roughly 80% of its data centre business, according to a Jefferies note reported by El Español, PressDigital and Merca2. Merlin gave those figures after its shares fell on doubts about the US neocloud’s finances.
The filing, as reported, does not mention CoreWeave. It says the new money is for refinancing and future needs, naming the data centre programme in particular.
The Structural Read
As we read the filing as reported, most of the money is refinancing: €725 million prepays a 2028 loan and €500 million of the second drawdown repays a 2027 bond, while the revolving line doubles to €1.5 billion.
As we read Cinco Días’ figures, the gap sits in the third phase: 406 MW at an estimated €4.406 billion, which by our arithmetic is about €10.9 million per megawatt, close to the second phase’s rate.
Merlin Properties, CNMV filing as quoted by Cinco Días (Spanish)
“la compaรฑรญa refuerza significativamente su perfil crediticio, elimina los vencimientos de los prรณximos tres aรฑos y obtiene una amplia flexibilidad financiera para ejecutar su estrategia de crecimiento”
Three Implications
FOR MERLIN’S LENDERS Europa Press reports the financing closed at an average cost of 100 basis points over mid-swaps, with Merlin keeping its loan-to-value ratio at 25%.
FOR COREWEAVE We reported on 21 October that Merlin told analysts CoreWeave was 8.6% of its total rents in the first half of 2026 and roughly 80% of its data centre business, per a Jefferies note reported by El Español.
FOR SPAIN’S DATA CENTRE BUILD Cinco Días lists a fourth phase at Navalmoral de la Mata in Cáceres, with a first stage of 200 MW and a further 1.2 GW.
The framework reads: “It is a sovereign-scale financing problem dressed in tech-company clothing — and the financial architecture is starting to invert.”
As we read it, Merlin is one place that architecture shows up: a property company refinancing its balance sheet while it builds megawatt-scale capacity for an AI tenant. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss Merlin.
The reports we read do not name the banks in the syndicate, and they do not say how much of the โฌ3.75 billion will go to data centres rather than refinancing, or whether any of it is meant for the third phase that Cinco Días says is not yet funded. We have read press accounts of the CNMV filing, not the filing itself; translations from Spanish are ours.
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Merlin says the loan clears its debt maturities for the next three years and doubles its revolving credit line to โฌ1.5 billion, while it builds a 724 MW data centre platform whose largest tenant today is CoreWeave, according to the Jefferies note. The reports we read put the average cost at 100 basis points over mid-swaps and do not say how much of the money is earmarked for data centres.
A note on sourcing. Loan terms are from Merlin’s 2 November filing to the CNMV as reported by Europa Press, EFE and Cinco Días; we have not read the filing itself. Data centre phases are as reported by Cinco Días. The CoreWeave share is from a Jefferies note as reported by El Español, PressDigital and Merca2, which we covered on 21 October. Translations from Spanish, the investment totals and the 85% ratio are ours.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
