HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese data centre owner ChinData Group is preparing to file confidentially for a U.S. IPO to raise up to $400 million as it becomes the latest mainland firm to seek a New York listing, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The Bain Capital backed firm is working towards carrying out a listing shortly, the sources said.
Companies can confidentially submit registration for an initial public offering (IPO) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bain Capital and ChinData declined to comment on the prospective IPO.
The sources could not be named as the information has not yet been made public.
Threats of being forced to delist and geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China is not dissuading companies from listing on the world’s biggest stockmarket.
A deal would make ChinData the 20th Chinese company to list in the U.S. so far in 2020, according to Refinitiv data.
At $400 million, it would be the fifth largest Chinese IPO in the U.S. market this year, the data showed.
So far in 2020 there has been $6.96 billion raised in 19 IPOs, according to Refinitiv, more than double the $3.42 billion raised during 2019.
ChinData has ‘campus style hyperscale’ data centres in Shenzhen, Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Datong, according to the company’s website and was last year merged with Bridge Data Centres.
ChinData’s decision to list in the United States ahead of Hong Kong was made because comparable stocks like Chinese data centre owner 21Vianet and GDS Holdings were already trading on the public markets, one source said.
21Vianet raised $353 million last week in a follow-on offering. (Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
