Foreign private equity firms are cashing out of China’s data centre sector after years of betting billions on the country’s cloud computing boom, as political and regulatory pressures make overseas ownership of digital infrastructure increasingly difficult.
Princeton Digital Group, which is backed by Warburg Pincus, is launching a sale of its China assets that could fetch as much as $1bn, according to three people familiar with the process, adding to a string of exits by global funds including Bain Capital and Carlyle.
A sale of PDG, which owns data centres across six Chinese cities, would mark the near end of a decade-long push by global buyout firms to invest directly into China’s digital infrastructure.