Princeton Digital Group, which is backed by buyout firm Warburg Pincus, is preparing a sale of its China assets that could earn up to $1bn as firms look to exit their data centre holdings in the country, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The process marks one of the final exits in a broader unwind of global buyout firms’ exposure to China’s digital infrastructure market. Surging demand from cloud providers such as Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance brought private equity into the market. Since 2017 firms such as Bain, Warburg Pincus and Carlyle have invested in the sector.
However, tightening cybersecurity and data governance regulations in China have made foreign ownership of digital infrastructure increasingly sensitive, prompting international investors to seek exits while valuations remain elevated amid AI-driven demand growth.
The proposed sale follows several major transactions in the sector over the past two years. Bain Capital last year sold its China data centre portfolio to a domestic consortium led by Shenzhen Dongyangguang Industry in a deal reportedly worth $4bn, while retaining the non-China operations of Bridge Data Centres. Meanwhile Carlyle, which invested in Chinese digital infrastructure company VNET Group, has reduced its exposure through refinancing arrangements and a buyout involving CATL.
