Billionaire Lei Zhang’s Hillhouse, Others Buy Stake In GDS Data Centers Outside China For $587 Million

Billionaire Lei Zhang’s Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital and other investors have agreed to buy a 44% stake in GDS Holdings’ data center assets outside mainland China for $587 million.

Shanghai-based GDS Holdings will retain a 56% stake in Singapore-based GDS International after the transaction is completed, the company said in a statement this week. The rest of the company will be owned by investors in the series A convertible preferred shares including Boyu Hillhouse, Princeville Capital, Rava Partners and Tekne Capital.

The transaction—which gives GDS International an enterprise value of $2.3 billion, including forecast debt for this year—comes as companies step up the development of data centers across Asia to meet surging demand from cloud service giants such as Amazon and Google.

GDS International has 330 megawatts of data center capacity in operation or under construction, with a further 340 MW held for future development across Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

“This landmark capital raising is a big step forward in our strategy to obtain dedicated financing for the development of our international business on a standalone basis,” William Huang, chairman and CEO of GDS Holdings and chairman of GDS International, said in a statement. “Within a short period of time, we have established market-leading positions in the major hub markets of Hong Kong and Singapore-Johor-Batam. We see tremendous opportunities for growth in these markets as well as in other new markets which we are currently evaluating.”

GDS International has secured commitments and reservations from global and Chinese customers for over 200 megawatts of data center capacity, of which more than 70 megawatts are already revenue generating. The company has so far raised over $1 billion in paid up capital, including cash injected by parent GDS Holdings and the fresh capital from the series A investors.