Chinese carrier-neutral internet data center services provider 21Vianet Group, Inc. announced that funds managed by Blackstone have agreed to invest US$150 million in the company.
Blackstone will become one of the company’s largest institutional stockholders. 21Vianet operates in more than 20 cities throughout 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.
”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,” said the company in a statement. ”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.
