Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000935
Chunk: 143

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 143
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 the future.

We are exposed to risks associated with the potential spin-off of one or more of our businesses.

We are exposed to risks associated with the potential spin-off listing of one or more of our businesses. As a secondary listed issuer on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we are exempted from strict compliance with certain requirements in Practice Note 15 to the Hong Kong Listing Rules regarding our ability to spin-off a subsidiary entity and list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange or other stock exchanges. While we currently do not have any concrete or definitive plan with respect to any spin-off listing, we may consider a spin-off listing for one or more of our businesses in the future. For example, our ABS have been successfully issued and listed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and our ABS Scheme is specifically designed to facilitate an eventual injection of the ABS into a public REIT vehicle when qualified. In addition, we have the right and may consider initiating an initial public offering for DayOne, subject to certain qualifications under the terms of the shareholders agreement with DayOne. Under the Hong Kong Listing Rules, any spin-off listing should not render our company incapable of fulfilling the eligibility requirements under Rules 8.05 and 19C.05 of the Hong Kong Listing Rules based on the financial information of the entity or entities to be spun-off at the time of the listing of our ordinary shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (calculated cumulatively if more than one entity is spun-off). In the event that we proceed with a spin-off, our interest in the entity to be spun-off will be reduced accordingly.

There is uncertainty as to whether Hong Kong stamp duty will apply to the trading or conversion of our ADSs.

In connection with the initial public offering of our Class A ordinary shares in Hong Kong in November 2020, or the Hong Kong IPO, we established a branch register of members in Hong Kong, or the Hong Kong share register. Our Class A ordinary shares that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including those issued in the Hong Kong IPO and those that may be converted from ADSs, are registered on the Hong Kong share register, and the trading of these Class A ordinary shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are subject to Hong Kong stamp duty. To facilitate ADS-ordinary share conversion and trading between Nasdaq and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we have moved a portion of our issued Class A ordinary shares from our register of members maintained in the Cayman Islands to our Hong Kong share register.

Under the Hong Kong Stamp Duty Ordinance, any person