Heavyweight | The privatization offer of 21Vianet was withdrawn
On the evening of June 30, 21Vianet announced that the buyer consortium composed of Chen Sheng, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jinshan Software and Tsinghua Unisplendor had notified the board of directors of 21Vianet to withdraw the offer of privatization of 21Vianet made on June 10, 2015. The buyer consortium said in the letter that, after careful consideration, in view of the current situation, it decided not to carry out the proposed acquisition.
On June 10, 2015, 21Vianet received a privatization offer from the buyer alliance composed of Chen Sheng, Jinshan Software and Tsinghua Unisplendor International, and planned to purchase all the issued shares of 21Vianet that the buyer alliance had not held in cash at $23 per ADS (equivalent to $3.83 per ordinary share). A month later, Jinshan Software announced again that it would support the privatization of 21Vianet, and planned to enter into a consortium agreement with Chen Sheng and Ziguang Group on the acquisition case, suggesting the establishment of a new holding company and its wholly-owned subsidiaries for the acquisition of 21Vianet.
However, a year later, the privatization of 21Vianet is still slow, and the market can not help but question that its privatization offer may be stranded. It has also been judged by industry people, that is, the buyer group composed of Kingsoft, Chen Sheng and Unisplendor International has long existed in name, so why would industry people make this judgment?
First, on April 30, 2016, 21Vianet quietly announced that Beijing Yiyun, its wholly-owned subsidiary, had agreed to issue RMB 1.75 billion worth of convertible bonds to a group of institutional investors.
Subsequently, on May 23, 2016, 21Vianet announced a financing that surprised the market, announcing that it had received an investment of 388 million dollars from Tus Holdings, which bought it at a price of 16.274 per ADS. Tus Holdings will obtain 31996874 Class A ordinary shares and 111053390 Class B ordinary shares of 21Vianet through this investment. Through this transaction, Tus Holdings will own 21.4% of the equity of 21Vianet and 51% of the voting rights.
Since then, the shareholding of Chen Sheng and Lei Junxi has been greatly diluted, and Chen Sheng and Lei Junxi are no longer the controlling parties, which makes the original buyer group already exist in name, and it is also logical to cancel the privatization application.
While the market expressed surprise at the introduction of Tus Holdings by 21Vianet in the form of additional issuance, it has predicted that the privatization plan of 21Vianet will have a substantial change. After the entry of Tus Holdings, either the privatization will be accelerated or stranded, or at least the original privatization plan has been scrapped.
At present, some analysts speculate that Tus Holdings will load 21Vianet into A-share companies through asset restructuring.
In addition, when 21Vianet announced Chen Sheng's withdrawal of the privatization offer, it also announced the plan to join a scientific research project called Cornerstone Plan of Tsinghua Holdings. At the same time, it announced its plan to buy back US $200 million of company shares in the next 12 months.
