On November 16, Shandong High-Tech Holdings (00412.HK) announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary plans to invest US$299 million to subscribe for 650,424,192 newly issued ordinary shares of 21Vianet (VNET), a US-listed company. Completion of this transaction is subject to the fulfillment of the conditions precedent set out in the investment agreement (including shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting).
The announcement shows that the subscription price is US$0.4597 per Class A ordinary share, or US$2.7582 per American Depositary Share (ADS). Each ADS represents 6 Class A ordinary shares. The subscription price is based on the average price per ADS over the ninety consecutive trading days ending on or before the last Nasdaq trading day prior to the date of the investment agreement, as well as 21Vianet’s unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023.
21Vianet is a leading carrier-neutral and cloud-neutral data center service provider in China, dedicated to improving the reliability, security, and speed of its clients’ internet infrastructure. It provides services such as data centers, cloud computing, and dedicated business VPNs. Currently, 21Vianet operates in over 30 cities across China, providing stable and diversified services to more than 7,000 enterprise clients, including internet companies, government agencies, blue-chip enterprises, and numerous SMEs.
Shandong Hi-Speed Group Holdings is a key overseas investment and financing and emerging industry holding platform under the Shandong Hi-Speed Group. In May 2022, Shandong Hi-Speed Group Holdings acquired the Hong Kong-listed company Beijing Enterprises Clean Energy Group (now renamed Shandong Hi-Speed New Energy Group), entering the new energy industry with a high starting point and leveraging the abundant resources of its controlling shareholder, Shandong Hi-Speed Group, to promote the high-quality integration and development of infrastructure and energy networks. Currently, Shandong Hi-Speed New Energy’s installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power exceeds 4GW.
Market analysts believe that in recent years, under the trend of comprehensively promoting the digital economy and building a digital China, the scale of computing infrastructure has accelerated. In particular, with the further expansion of AI computing power applications represented by ChatGPT, the demand for computing power has increased dramatically, leading to a rapid increase in electricity consumption. Against the backdrop of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,” market demand for the green and low-carbon development of data centers has emerged. Shandong High-Tech Holdings’ strategic investment in Century Internet completes its industrial layout in the digital new infrastructure sector. This aims to promote synergy between its green energy industry and data center industry, creating a collaborative industrial ecosystem model of “source-grid-load-storage integration.” This is expected to form a closed-loop ecosystem of “green electricity + computing power” characterized by “on-demand power generation, on-demand electricity, reasonable pricing, and mutual benefit,” driving the green and low-carbon transformation of high-energy-consuming data center businesses, optimizing the industrial ecosystem, and enhancing corporate competitiveness.
(Source: Securities Times Online)
