Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000935
Chunk: 62

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 62
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 its business, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations, expected growth and prospects.

Table of Contents

Some of the consolidated VIEs may be regarded as being non-compliant with the regulations on VATS, due to operating beyond the permitted scope of their IDC licenses.

One of the consolidated VIEs, GDS Shanghai, obtained a regional IDC license for the Shanghai area in January 2012. Nevertheless, GDS Shanghai provided IDC services in cities outside of Shanghai, which were beyond the scope of its then-effective IDC license. GDS Shanghai upgraded its IDC license to a cross-regional license in April 2016, according to which GDS Shanghai is allowed to provide IDC services in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. A subsidiary of one of the consolidated VIEs, GDS Suzhou, was historically authorized to provide general IDC services under the auspices of an IDC license held by GDS Beijing but such authorization approved by MIIT did not include internet resources collaboration services. Nevertheless, GDS Suzhou signed agreements with clients to provide internet resources collaboration services. In 2018, we further expanded GDS Beijing’s authorization to GDS Suzhou so that GDS Suzhou also was allowed to provide internet resources collaboration services. In addition, in 2016, 2017 and 2018, GDS Beijing and GDS Suzhou entered into IDC service agreements with relevant customers, according to which GDS Beijing and GDS Suzhou have been providing IDC services to their respective customers through third-party data centers in Tianjin. In 2017, GDS Beijing entered into an IDC services agreement with a certain customer, according to which GDS Beijing has been providing IDC services since 2018 in our three data centers located at Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. However, GDS Beijing’s IDC license and its authorization granted to GDS Suzhou have not included the Tianjin and Zhangjiakou areas until 2019, when GDS Beijing has upgraded its IDC license to cover the Zhangjiakou, Langfang and Tianjin areas, and GDS Suzhou has obtained its own IDC license whereby GDS Suzhou is also allowed to provide general IDC services in broad geographic scope including Tianjin and Zhangjiakou. However, although such approvals have been obtained, we cannot assure you that any agreements signed before GDS Beijing and GDS Suzhou obtained such approvals may not be deemed as historical non-compliance. If the MIIT regards GDS Shanghai