Sandy Ridge's sole bidder asks banks for 84% of its HK$23.8bn build

Range is asking banks for about HK$20bn against a project estimated at HK$23.8bn ^[6][4]. That is 84 percent of the build ^[1]. The other HK$3.8bn, 16 percent, sits outside the loan request ^[2]. Crypto Briefing reports that Range does not appear to have capital of that size on hand ^[14].

The land grant dates from March 2026 and the full computing target is 2032, about six years apart ^[4][5][6]. Six years of building on short-term money means funding one stage and then renewing. Crypto Briefing writes that short-term bank loans do not offer the patient capital a seven-year buildout demands ^[13]. Each renewal puts the same questions back to the same lenders, and the questions on record are Range's repayment capacity and a remote location that currently lacks the infrastructure to support it ^[7].

Demand is strong. Roughly 90 percent of recent data center leasing in the region has gone to Chinese AI firms, and wholesale prices have spiked as supply lags ^[10]. Hong Kong had about 687 MW installed as of the first quarter of 2026, and the AI wave is driving power densities those existing facilities were not designed to handle ^[9][15]. Sandy Ridge's own megawatt rating has not been reported, so what it would add to that 687 MW cannot be worked out. Lenders sizing a 2032 asset are also looking at Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu, each with Greater Bay Area expansion plans of its own ^[11].

The public payoff figure is HK$4.6bn of economic output in the first three years, about HK$1.5bn a year ^[8][4]. The loan being sought is 4.3 times that entire three-year total ^[3]. That output accrues to the city, not to Range, so it is no measure of debt service. At HK$23.8bn for up to 250,000 square meters, the build costs about HK$95,000 per square meter of gross floor area ^[5][4].

A HK$20bn request would be among the largest loan deals sought in Hong Kong this year, and a deal that size needs a syndicate, so some of the wait is ordinary ^[6]. The second possibility is a smaller facility drawn in tranches tied to construction phases, with the 2032 date moving out. The third is that Sandy Ridge's location and the sheer size of the commitment kept Hong Kong's property companies out of the tender, in which case the credit problem is Range's alone ^[3][7]. I'd expect the second. A syndicated multi-year facility at or near the full HK$20bn would point the other way, and would say the banks are willing to lend against Chinese AI leasing demand at the prices it now commands.