China Merchants outbids Bain for ChinData with $3.4 billion

China Merchants Group has offered to acquire ChinData, a Chinese data center company. Existing investor Bain has already submitted a take-private proposal for the company. According to Bloomberg, a subsidiary of the state-owned conglomerate has submitted a $3.4 billion proposal to acquire Chindata Group Holdings Ltd. ChinData was still contemplating Bain Capital's June bid to acquire all outstanding ordinary shares and turn the company private. China Merchants has made a non-binding cash bid of $9.20 per American depositary share, as opposed to Bain's offer of $8 per ADS. The value of ChinData's stock peaked at $9 earlier this year and is currently around $7.24.

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. China Merchants stated that Chindata's employees are crucial to its success and that it intends to retain as many of them as feasible. According to a statement, it intends to collaborate closely with Chindata management to accelerate the next phase of its development strategy and further unlock its capabilities as Asia's leading data center platform.

In 2019, Bain acquired ChinData from Wangsu Science and Technology Co. and integrated it with one of its portfolio companies, Bridge Data Centres. In 2020, the merged business went public. Bain still owns approximately 42 percent of ChinData as of 2020, when SK Holdings will acquire a stake in the company. Last year, ChinData reportedly fielded acquisition offers. According to reports, China Merchants was contemplating a bid for ChinData, but nothing came of the speculation.