Bain seeks to privatize ChinData

A bid to take Chinese data center operator ChinData private has been made by the investment firm Bain Capital. This week, ChinData announced that the investment firm, which is already investing in the data center firm, filed a preliminary, non-binding request letter to acquire all remaining ordinary shares.

At $8 per share, the offer values ChinData at approximately $2.93 billion. In recent months, the company's stock traded as low as $4.95 per share but has since risen to around $7.18, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $2.63 billion at the time of writing. ChinData stated that no resolution had been reached, and there were no guarantees that a definitive offer would be made. ChinData operates over 17 data centers in China, Malaysia, and Thailand; its non-Chinese facilities are administered by subsidiary Bridge Data Centres, which is also constructing a site in India. ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is a significant client of ChinData.

Bain acquired Chindata from Wangsu Science and Technology Co. in 2019 and integrated it with its portfolio company Bridge Data Centres. In 2020, the combined company went public. Bain still controls approximately 42% of ChinData. In 2020, SK Holdings acquired a stake in the corporation.