SK to invest $300 million in ChinData Group by joining in pre-IPO share sale
Jun Ho Cha
Aug 10, 2020 (Gmt+09:00)
SK Corp. is investing $300 million (360 billion won) in Chinese data center operator ChinData Group as the South Korean company seeks to benefit from growing global demand among enterprises for cloud services.
The investment will be made by participating in a pre-IPO placement by the Beijing-based wholesale data center provider, according to investment banking sources.
SK could use its own cash or utilize its corporate partnership, or COPA fund, which it jointly launched last year with major pension funds such as the National Pension Service and the Korean Teachers’ Credit Union, they said.
Private equity firm Bain Capital took a majority stake in ChinData with a $570 million investment in May last year and merged it with existing portfolio company Bridge Data Centers to form a pan-Asian data-center platform. The combined group has nine facilities in the Asia-Pacific region, including China, India and Malaysia.