Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form Type: 424B5
Source: 0001104659-25-053057
Chunk: 31

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-05-27
Form: 424B5
Chunk 31
---
 Company” or “our” refers to GDS Holdings Limited, an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands with limited liability on December 1, 2006 and, where the context requires, its consolidated subsidiaries and the consolidated affiliated entities, including the variable interest entities and their subsidiaries, from time to time. Investors in our ADSs are not purchasing an equity interest in the consolidated VIEs and their subsidiaries in mainland China, but instead are purchasing an equity interest in a holding company incorporated as a Cayman Islands exempted company and its subsidiaries (excluding the VIEs and their subsidiaries).

In addition, aside from our direct operations through our consolidated subsidiaries and consolidated VIEs, we also derive a significant proportion of our value and results of operations from DayOne, our equity investee, in which we hold a 35.6% equity stake and which develops and operates data centers in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. See “Item 4 — Information on the Company — B. Business Overview — Our Equity Investment in DayOne” and “Item 5 — Operating and Financial Review and Prospects — Overview — Discontinued Operations” in our 2024 Annual Report.

Our consolidated mainland China subsidiaries, the consolidated VIEs and their shareholders have entered into a series of contractual arrangements, including equity interest pledge agreements, shareholder voting rights proxy agreements, exclusive technology license and service agreements, intellectual property rights license agreements, exclusive call option agreements and loan agreements. The terms in each set of contractual arrangements with the consolidated VIEs and their shareholders are substantially similar. For more details of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 4. Information on the Company — C. Organizational Structure — Contractual Arrangements with Affiliated Consolidated Entities” in our 2024 Annual Report. We rely on these contractual arrangements to control the business operations of the consolidated VIEs. As a

<div align='center'>S-7</div>

TABLE OF CONTENTS

result of these contractual arrangements, we are the primary beneficiary of Management HoldCo, GDS Shanghai, GDS Beijing and their respective subsidiaries, and, therefore, have consolidated their financial results in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

However, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over the consolidated VIEs and we may have to incur substantial costs and expend significant resources to enforce such arrangements in reliance on legal remedies under PRC law. See “Item 3. Key Information — D. Risk Factors —