Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000935
Chunk: 117

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 117
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 governmental authorities. Since a significant amount of our future net revenue will be denominated in Renminbi, any existing and future restrictions on currency exchange may limit our ability to utilize net revenue generated in Renminbi to fund our business activities outside of the PRC or pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs and/or ordinary shares, and may limit our ability to obtain foreign currency through debt or equity financing for our subsidiaries, VIEs or their subsidiaries.

Table of Contents

The audit report included in this annual report is prepared by an auditor which the U. S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board was unable to inspect and investigate completely before 2022 and, as such, our investors had been deprived of the benefits of such inspections in the past, and may be deprived of the benefits of such inspections in the future.

Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit report included elsewhere in this annual report, as an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the U. S. and a firm registered with the PCAOB, is required by the laws of the U. S. to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the U. S. and professional standards. According to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the territory of the PRC. Accordingly, without the consent of the competent PRC securities regulators and relevant authorities, no organization or individual may provide the documents and materials relating to securities business activities to overseas parties. In 2021, PCAOB made determinations that the positions taken by PRC authorities prevented the PCAOB from inspecting and investigating firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong completely. On August 26, 2022, the PCAOB signed a Statement of Protocol with the CSRC and the Ministry of Finance of the PRC, taking the first step toward opening access for the PCAOB to inspect and investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong including our auditor. According to its announcement, the PCAOB sent staff to conduct on-site inspections and investigations in Hong Kong from September to November 2022 and conducted inspection field work and investigative testimony in a manner consistent with the PCAOB’s methodology and approach to inspections and investigations in the U. S. and globally. The PCAOB inspections have identified numerous deficiencies in the audit firms in China, which are consistent with the types and number of