Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000935
Chunk: 8

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 8
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 in the United States.

In December 2021, the PCAOB made its determinations, or the 2021 determinations, pursuant to the HFCA Act that it was unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China or Hong Kong including our auditor. After we filed our annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 on April 28, 2022, the SEC conclusively identified us as an SEC-identified issuer on May 26, 2022. As such, we are required to satisfy additional disclosure requirement for SEC-identified issuers that are also foreign issuers in this annual report. See “ Item 16I. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.”

Following the Statement of Protocol signed between the PCAOB and the CSRC and the Ministry of Finance of the PRC, or MOF, in August 2022 and the on-site inspections and investigations conducted by the PCAOB staff in Hong Kong from September to November 2022, the PCAOB Board voted in December 2022 to vacate the previous 2021 determinations, and as a result, our auditor is no longer a registered public accounting firm that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely as of the date of this annual report or at the time of issuance of the audit report included herein. As such, we were not identified as an SEC - identified issuer following the filing of our annual reports in 2023 and 2024, and we do not expect to be so identified following the filing of our annual report in 2025 either. However, the PCAOB may change its determinations under the HFCA Act at any point in the future. In particular, if the PCAOB finds its ability to completely inspect and investigate registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China or Hong Kong is obstructed by the PRC authorities in any way in the future, the PCAOB may act immediately to consider the need to issue new determinations consistent with the HFCA Act. We cannot assure you that the PCAOB will always have complete access to inspect and investigate our auditor, or that we will not be identified as an SEC-identified issuer again in the future.

If we are identified as an SEC-identified issuer again in the future, we cannot assure you that we will be able to change our auditor or take other remedial measures in a timely manner, and if we were to be identified as an SEC-identified issuer for two consecutive years,