Bain Capital to Establish Pan-Asian Data Centre Platform With New Mergers
Bain Capital today announced the merger of ChinData, a leading Chinese operator of campus-style, hyperscale data centres, and Bridge Data Centres, a wholesale and custom build data centre company, to form one of the leading pan-Asian data centre platforms. The new parent Company, ChinData Group, will continue to operate under the ChinData and Bridge brands respectively. Bain Capital acquired ChinData in May 2019 from Wangsu Science & Technology Co. Ltd and has owned Bridge Data Centres since 2017.
The combined company delivers hyperscale, wholesale and custom-build data centre solutions to leading regional and global customers, with facilities in China, India, and Southeast Asia. The company currently has delivered over 100 MW of contracted capacity and is still under continuous and full-speed development.
Bain Capital’s investment in the combined entity is funded from vehicles managed by Bain Capital Private Equity and Bain Capital Credit. Executing this multi-part deal and corporate combination required long-term creative thinking and financing over more than three years, beginning with a greenfield development in India, acquisitions in Southeast Asia, and the exploration of the hyperscale opportunity brought about by the massive needs among Internet, cloud and technology companies in China. ChinData Group is poised to benefit from the dramatic growth in demand among enterprises for cloud services and the expansion of opportunities in Asia for international cloud providers that require high performance mission critical data centre facilities.
The combined company employs professionals with deep experience and capabilities in data centre design, development, and facility operations. It expects to invest further capital to expand its footprint of wholesale and custom-build hyperscale solutions to more than 300 MW over the next two years to become one of the largest independent third-party data center platforms in Asia.
Jonathan Zhu, co-head of Asia Private Equity for Bain Capital, said: “This deal demonstrates Bain Capital’s capabilities as a truly cross-regional, multi-asset class investment platform. The combined entity brings together the best minds to power the Asian data revolution, especially in China and India, the two largest and most promising markets globally. ChinData Group will be able to move quickly to serve customers on a pan-Asian regional basis and build a differentiated position in the market.”
Barnaby Lyons, a Managing Director and Head of Asia for Bain Capital Credit, said: “This transaction showcases that Bain Capital, with both private equity and special situations teams, can provide a wide spectrum of solutions to businesses in Asia looking for growth capital.”