(Yicai Global) July 11 -- China Merchants Capital Holdings International, the investment arm of state-owned China Merchants Group, has offered USD3.4 billion to acquire Chindata Group Holdings, starting a potential bidding war with US private equity firm Bain Capital.

CMC made a non-binding cash offer of USD9.20 for each of Chindata’s American depositary shares, the Shenzhen-based firm said yesterday. That is a 15 percent premium on Bain's take-private offer of USD8 per ADS made on June 6.

Chindata’s stock [NASDAQ: CD] ended up 12.3 percent at USD8.13 in New York yesterday. It has gained nearly 43 percent since the start of last month.

Bain, Chindata's largest shareholder with a 42.2 percent stake, aims to buy the shares of the Beijing-based data center operator that it does not already own. Its bid was 27 percent higher than Chindata's closing price on the day the proposal was made.

Chindata was set up as the international data center division of information technology service provider Wangsu Science & Technology in 2015, before Bain paid CNY1 billion (USD140 million) for a stake in 2019. Chindata went public at USD13.50 a share in September 2020.

Chindata provides data center services in emerging Asia Pacific markets, including China, India, and Southeast Asia, with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, as its biggest client. Its net profit surged 106 percent to CNY652 million (USD90.5 million) in 2022 from the year before, while revenue jumped 60 percent to CNY4.6 billion, according to its annual earnings report.

Editor: Martin Kadiev