GDS Announces Equity Investment by Hillhouse and STT GDC

SHANGHAI, China, June 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GDS Holdings Limited (“GDS Holdings”, “GDS” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: GDS), a leading developer and operator of high-performance data centers in China, today announced that two long-term investors, Hillhouse Capital (“Hillhouse”) and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (“STT GDC”), have agreed to purchase, through a private placement, a total of $505 million of newly issued Class A ordinary shares of the Company at a price equivalent to $65 per ADS. The private placement represents approximately 5.1% of the Company’s total outstanding shares. Hillhouse will subscribe $400 million and STT GDC will subscribe $105 million. The purchase price reflects a 5.9% discount to the VWAP (volume weighted average price) of GDS shares for the last 10 trading days ended June 19, 2020.

Following the equity investment, Hillhouse’s ownership position in GDS will be approximately 3.9% and STT GDC will be approximately 34.2%. The proceeds from the investment will be used by GDS for its organic data center development, potential acquisition opportunities, and other general corporate purposes.

The transaction is expected to close in the next few days. It is expected that the share issuance will be exempted from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the “Securities Act”) pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act regarding transactions not involving a public offering or Regulation S under the Securities Act.

“I am very pleased to secure this capital to support our growth at a time when new IT infrastructure development in China is going to a higher level,” said Mr. William Huang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GDS. “Furthermore, I am very pleased to have done it in a way which adds value to GDS and strengthens our shareholder base. Hillhouse is one of the most respected investors, and we look forward to working with them over the long term. I also very much appreciate the on-going support from our strategic partner, STT GDC.”

About GDS Holdings Limited

GDS Holdings Limited (Nasdaq: GDS) is a leading developer and operator of high-performance data centers in China. The Company’s facilities are strategically located in China’s primary economic hubs where demand for high-performance data center services is concentrated. The Company also builds-to-suit and operates data centers at lower-tier locations selected by its customers in order to fulfill their broader requirements. The Company’s data centers have large net floor area, high power capacity, density and efficiency, and multiple redundancy across all critical systems. GDS is carrier and cloud-neutral, which enables its customers to access all the major PRC telecommunications networks, as well as the largest PRC and global public clouds which are hosted in many of its facilities. The Company offers colocation and managed services, including direct private connection to leading public clouds, an innovative service platform for managing hybrid clouds and, where required, the resale of public cloud services. The Company has a 19-year track record of service delivery, successfully fulfilling the requirements of some of the largest and most demanding customers for outsourced data center services in China. The Company’s customer base consists predominantly of hyperscale cloud service providers, large internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications carriers and IT service providers, and large domestic private sector and multinational corporations.