Company: GDHLF
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001410578-25-000935
Chunk: 88

Company: GDS Holdings Ltd
Filing Date: 2025-04-28
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 3
Chunk 88
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 restrictions on certain VATS provided within domestic Pilot Areas, and following the VAT Circular, the relevant local Communications Administrations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hainan successively released the relevant guidelines on the application of VAT licenses within the Pilot Areas. However, the relevant regulatory authorities would have discretion in granting approval on the VAT licenses under the VAT Circular. For more details, see “ Item 4. Information on the Company - B. Business Overview - Regulatory Matters Related to Our Business - People’s Republic of China Regulations - Regulations on Foreign Investment Restrictions.”

Because we are a Cayman Islands company, we are classified as a foreign enterprise under PRC laws and regulations, and our wholly owned mainland China subsidiaries or PRC joint ventures are foreign-invested enterprises, or their subsidiaries. See List of Subsidiaries of the Registrant, Exhibit 8.1 to this annual report, for a complete list of our wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures incorporated in the PRC. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we conduct our business in mainland China through contractual arrangements with the consolidated VIEs and their shareholders. These contractual arrangements provide us with effective control over the consolidated VIEs, and enable us to receive substantially all of the economic benefits of the consolidated VIEs and their subsidiaries in consideration for the services provided by our consolidated mainland China subsidiaries, and have an exclusive option to purchase all of the equity interest in the consolidated VIEs when permissible under PRC laws. See List of Subsidiaries of the Registrant, Exhibit 8.1 to this annual report, for a complete list of the consolidated VIEs and their subsidiaries. For a description of the contractual arrangements among GDS Investment Company, Management HoldCo, GDS Beijing and GDS Shanghai, see “ Item 4. Information on the Company - C. Organizational Structure - Contractual Arrangements with Affiliated Consolidated Entities.”

We believe that our corporate structure and contractual arrangements comply with the current applicable PRC laws and regulations. Our PRC legal counsel, based on its understanding of the relevant laws and regulations, is of the opinion that each of the contracts among our consolidated mainland China subsidiaries, the consolidated VIEs and their shareholders is valid, legally binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms. However, as there are uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations, including the M& A Rules, the telecommunications circular described above and the Telecommunications Regulations of the People’s Republic of China, or the Telecommunications