21Vianet Announces US$150 million Investment from Blackstone
22 Juni 2020 - 02:02PM
21Vianet Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET), a leading carrier- and
cloud-neutral Internet data center services provider in China,
today announced that funds managed by Blackstone (NYSE:BX)
(“Blackstone”), one of the world’s leading investment firms, have
agreed to make a US$150 million investment in the Company. As a
result of this investment, Blackstone will become one of the
Company’s largest institutional stockholders. The transaction is
subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
This investment will further strengthen the balance sheet of
21Vianet and help support the rapid growth that 21Vianet is
experiencing in wholesale and enterprise data center markets.
21Vianet intends to use the proceeds from the private placement on
capital expenditures to reinforce its position in China’s hyper
growth data center market.
“We are delighted to welcome Blackstone, one of the world’s
leading investment firms, to partner with us to fuel our next phase
of growth,” said Josh Chen, Founder and Executive Chairman,
21Vianet. “This investment is a valuable vote of confidence in the
strategy being pursued by our team. Blackstone’s experience,
connections and knowledge of the data center sector globally will
help us embrace new infrastructure and digital transformation
opportunities to better serve our customers.”
“China’s public cloud is experiencing exponential growth and
21Vianet is positioned to meaningfully accelerate its deployment of
data center capacity,” said Jasvinder Khaira, Senior Managing
Director, Tactical Opportunities, Blackstone.
“Josh and the management team have successfully built 21Vianet
into one of China’s leading internet data center operators,” said
Kishore Moorjani, Senior Managing Director and Asia Head of
Tactical Opportunities, Blackstone. “We have been impressed with
their technical capabilities, focus, and deep customer
relationships.”
“We are excited to support 21Vianet’s growth plans and look
forward to a partnership where we can assist with our global
experience in the sector,” said Mike Shang, Managing Director,
Tactical Opportunities, Blackstone.
The Blackstone investment in 21Vianet includes the
following material terms:
- The investors will subscribe US$150 million newly issued Series
A perpetual preferred shares (“Preferred Shares”).
- The Preferred Shares are convertible into American Depositary
Shares (“ADSs”) of the Company at a conversion price of US$17.00
per ADS, or into Class A ordinary shares of the Company at a
corresponding conversion price. The conversion price
represents a premium of 11% to the volume-weighted average price of
ADSs for the 30 trading days immediately preceding the signing
date, subject to customary anti-dilution adjustments.
- The Preferred Shares are not redeemable.
- The Preferred Shares will bear dividend at a rate of 4.5% per
annum and rank senior to the Company’s ordinary shares in
liquidation.
- 21Vianet will have the right to trigger a mandatory conversion
at its election, if its ADSs achieve a specified price threshold at
200% of the conversion price for a specified period.
As part of the transaction, Blackstone will designate a
non-voting observer to attend meetings of the 21Vianet Board of
Directors, subject to maintaining its shareholding at or above a
specified percentage threshold.
Additional information regarding the private placement will be
included in a Form 6-K to be filed by 21Vianet with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission.
About 21Vianet
21Vianet Group, Inc. is a leading carrier- and cloud-neutral
Internet data center services provider in China. 21Vianet provides
hosting and related services, including IDC services, cloud
services, and business VPN services to improve the reliability,
security and speed of its customers' Internet infrastructure.
Customers may locate their servers and equipment in 21Vianet's data
centers and connect to China's Internet backbone. 21Vianet operates
in more than 20 cities throughout China, servicing a diversified
and loyal base of nearly 5,000 hosting and related enterprise
customers that span numerous industries ranging from Internet
companies to government entities and blue-chip enterprises to
small- to mid-sized enterprises.
About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We
seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our
investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which
we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible
capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management
businesses, with $538 billion in assets under management, include
investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public
debt and equity, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade
credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global
basis. Further information is available at
www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter
@Blackstone.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor"
provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including
statements about 21Vianet's beliefs and expectations, are forward
looking statements. These statements can be identified by
terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future,"
"intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements.
Such statements are based upon management’s current expectations
and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events
that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which
are beyond the Company’s control, which may cause the Company’s
actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially
from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information
regarding these and other risks is included in 21Vianet's reports
filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All information provided in this press release and in
the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and
21Vianet undertakes no duty to update such information, except as
required under applicable law.
Investor Relations and Media Contacts:
21Vianet Group, Inc.
Rene Jiang+86 10 8456 2121IR@21Vianet.com
Julia Jiang+86 10 8456 2121IR@21Vianet.com
ICR, Inc.
Xinran Rao+1 (646) 405-4922IR@21Vianet.com
Blackstone
Ellen Bogard, Global Public Affairs+852 9731
9726Ellen.Bogard@blackstone.com
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