Data centre firm GDS confirms investor talks on potential deals outside China

Chinese data centre developer and operator GDS Holdings said it had been in discussions with several private equity investors on investing in its operations outside the country.

The Hong Kong-listed company made the comment in a stock exchange filing late on Monday after Bloomberg News reported that Hillhouse, Boyu Capital and CDH Investments are in advanced talks to invest in GDS’ data center business outside China.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, added that an agreement on a total investment of $500 million to $600 million may be reached as soon as the coming weeks.

“However, as at the date of this announcement, no definitive legal agreements relating to any private equity capital raising have been entered into and there can be no certainty that any transaction will proceed or, if it does, what the structure of such transaction may be,” GDS said in the filing.

GDS added that it had previously said it had been reviewing options on the capital needs of its international business, including the possibility of raising capital for its international business from private equity investors.

Hillhouse, Boyu and CDH did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment on Tuesday.

Infrastructure assets such as data centres have been gaining investors’ interest in Asia. In September, global investment firm KKR & Co acquired 20% of Singapore Telecommunications’ regional data centre business for S$1.1 billion ($826.51 million).