21Vianet pulls in $296mn in data centre investment from Kingsoft and others
Tue 2 Dec 2014
U.S. overnight trading on Beijing-based data centre services provider 21Vianet rose by 5.4% on the news that the company has received $296mn (£189mn) of investment from multi-portfolioed investor Lei Jun.
Jun is the executive director of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi Tech – recently involved in a controversy with the Indian air force over the privacy settings of one of its mobile phones – as well as the Executive Director of Kingsoft, which has made the largest contribution to 21Vianet, and the founder of Amazon China.
In October 21Vianet partnered with Foxconn to develop data centres on a large scale and also to invest in cloud infrastructure. The company bought its share of ISP AMP Group to over 50%, extending its infrastructure operations to the front door of end-consumers.
Kingsoft’s share of the investment augments its stake in 21Vianet to 12.68% through $172mn (£109mn) worth of shares. Xiaomi is investing $50mn (£31mn). Singapore-owned investment company Temasek Holdings is contributing $74mn (£47mn).
Chief Financial Officer of 21Vianet Shang Hsiao said: “By partnering with Kingsoft and Xiaomi, not only will we be able to expand the scale of our data center footprint, but we will also be able to develop the next-generation infrastructure platform, helping fuel the continued growth of mobile Internet traffic and cloud computing technology in China.”
Temasek CEO and co-founder Josh Chen commented: “By partnering with Kingsoft and Xiaomi, not only will we be able to expand the scale of our data center footprint, but we will also be able to develop the next-generation infrastructure platform, helping fuel the continued growth of mobile Internet traffic and cloud computing technology in China.”
The deal remains subject to closing conditions and is expected to complete sometime in January of next year. The company declares that it remains committed to customer-neutral, carrier-agnostic services, but rather that the deal is intended to bolster its core operations and open up new business opportunities.
