After the private placement was terminated, Aofei Data's 2.1 billion yuan private REITs received acceptance

Guancha.cn After terminating the private placement matter, Aofei Data has chosen to revitalize the assets it holds through asset securitization.

Recently, the China Merchants Securities—Jinshi Fund—Aofei Data 2026 No. 1 green data center holding real-estate asset support special plan has been accepted for filing. The filing size is RMB 2.1 billion, the issuer is Aofei Data, and the manager is China Merchants Securities.

Aofei Data said that by launching a holding-type real-estate asset support special plan, the company will further revitalize existing assets and unlock the potential value of existing assets. This is conducive to promoting a virtuous cycle of investment in the data center development and operations sector, facilitating sustained, healthy, and steady development, and enhancing the company’s ability for sustainable operations.

Worth noting is that in 2025, Aofei Data had planned a private placement of no more than RMB 1.7B to build five data center buildings (W5) in Langfang Gu’an, including deploying 8,925 8.8KW server racks. This private placement plan was terminated months later.

Private placement gets bumpy

Aofei Data had announced that the company planned, as the original rights holder, to carry out the filing and issuance work for the holding-type real-estate asset support special plan.

The underlying assets of this project are the Tianjin Panggu Cloud Tai Data Center project located at No. 7, Section 1, East Ma Quan Town, Wu Lu Road (East Ma Quan Town segment) in Dongmaq in Wuqing District, Tianjin, as well as its related supporting facilities. The issuance targets are professional institutional investors, and the original rights holder or its affiliates will subscribe for no more than 40% of the units.

Industry tech line learned that Aofei Data is a leading third-party Internet data center (IDC) service provider in China. It is positioned as an overall solution provider for “cloud-network integration and computing power services.” Its business covers areas such as Internet data centers (IDCs), cloud computing and artificial intelligence data centers (AIDCs), green energy, and interconnection of data networks.

From an industry chain perspective, the company sits downstream of basic telecom operators. By using existing Internet communication lines and bandwidth resources, and through self-built or leased standardized telecom professional-grade data center environments, it leverages its own technologies to build multi-network service platforms connecting different basic telecom operator networks, providing services such as bandwidth leasing and rack leasing, as well as IP address leasing, to customers across various industries—especially Internet industry customers.

It is understood that its business currently covers more than 40 cities in China. In cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Langfang, Tianjin, Chengdu, Haikou, Nanning, and Nanchang, it has 14 self-built, self-operated data centers, with its customer base including Internet companies, communication operators, financial institutions, manufacturing enterprises, and government institutions. Core customers include major Internet vendors such as Baidu, Kuaishou, Kingsoft Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. The company provides basic IDC services for customers, such as rack leasing and bandwidth leasing, as well as value-added services including computing power equipment sales, computing power leasing, content delivery network (CDN), data synchronization, and network security.

As of the end of June 2025, Aofei Data had invested in and put into operation self-built, self-operated data centers totaling more than 57k racks. Its website shows that its rack scale exceeds 100k.

Worth noting is that previously, Aofei Data planned a private placement of no more than RMB 57k to build a new-generation cloud computing and artificial intelligence industrial park (Langfang Gu’an Buildings F, G, H, I, and J). Specifically, this fund-raising project involves data center server rooms in five of the industrial park’s buildings. The construction period is 18 months. After completion, Aofei Data will add five data center buildings, deploying 8,925 8.8KW racks. The number of rack resources will increase significantly.

The project’s main revenue will be IDC service income from equipment hosting. Based on an estimated 10-year operating service period, the project’s payback period after income tax is 7.40 years (including the construction period). The internal rate of return after income tax is 11.49%.

Aofei Data previously said that, due to increasingly strict energy consumption controls in first-tier cities, the scarce resource attribute of data centers in first-tier cities and surrounding areas will continue to stand out. After the projects proposed to be funded under this offering are completed, the company will add 8,925 racks in the Beijing surrounding areas, obtain more customer orders, meet customers’ needs, and increase its market share and industry standing.

However, this plan did not proceed as expected. Earlier this year, Aofei Data withdrew the plan, stating that based on the actual development needs of the company’s own business and future strategic plans, and after comprehensively considering the progress of the projects funded under this offering, and through thorough communication and prudent analysis and demonstration among relevant parties, the company decided to terminate this private placement matter.

Binding with cloud vendors

Judging from operating conditions, since its founding, Aofei Data’s performance has maintained steady growth, with its revenue and profit scale continuing to expand.

According to its disclosed third-quarter reports, in the first three quarters, Aofei Data’s operating revenue was RMB 100k, up 15.33% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 145 million, up 37.29% year over year; and net profit after deducting non-recurring items attributable to the parent company was RMB 144 million, up 27.88% year over year.

From the business structure perspective, IDC services remain the company’s most core source of revenue. In the first half of 2025, IDC services achieved revenue of about RMB 895 million, accounting for about 78%; other Internet integrated services (including computing power leasing, equipment sales, and comprehensive operations and maintenance services) achieved revenue of RMB 194 million, accounting for about 17%. As intelligent computing power center (AIDC) projects are advanced, the supply capacity for computing power leasing and integrated services will increase accordingly.

Meanwhile, in the previous 2015–2024 period, Aofei Data’s operating revenue grew from only RMB 160 million to RMB 1.7B, with a compound annual growth rate of about 33.57%. In 2018, Aofei Data officially listed on the ChiNext market. After that, its IDC business entered a period of rapid expansion, and revenue accelerated in growth starting from 2019.

However, in recent years, Aofei Data’s net profit attributable to shareholders has declined in phases, mainly due to the rapid expansion of its fixed assets and liabilities. On the one hand, as major data center projects such as Langfang Gu’an, Tianjin Wuqing, and Guangzhou Nansha are completed one after another, newly added fixed assets have increased significantly, causing depreciation and amortization and financial expenses to rise in tandem.

On the other hand, Aofei Data has made provisions for asset impairment to a certain scale due to shutdowns of renovations and modifications of certain data centers, as well as operational issues of some customers, which has created pressure on net profit in the short term.

Previously, Aofei Data planned to continue advancing the construction and delivery of data centers in Langfang Gu’an, Tianjin Wuqing, and Hebei Dingxing in 2025. Construction work at the earthwork stage for the Huailai data center in Hebei is progressing in an orderly manner, and it is expected to complete the first batch of commissioning by the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026.

Another point worth noting is that in these years of rapid development, Aofei Data has deeply tied itself to multiple leading Internet giants.

For example, in 2020, Aofei Data and Alibaba signed a cooperation memorandum on locking in data center resources in the South China region. It would be responsible for customizing data center rack resources for Alibaba in South China and would take on the full process work including investment, design, construction, and operations and maintenance. The contract term was originally set at 5 years, and if both parties have no objections, it would be automatically extended to 8 years upon expiration.

In 2021 and 2022, Aofei Data also signed agreements with Baidu in succession, providing Baidu with services from the Guangzhou Nansha and Langfang Gu’an data centers. The term is 6 years, and total expected cooperation revenue is about RMB 1.95 billion.

In 2024, Aofei Data announced plans to invest in expanding the Inner Mongolia Ulanqab computing power center, clearly mentioning that it would provide computing power leasing services to leading cloud vendors such as Alibaba Cloud.

Disclaimer: The content and data in this article are compiled by Guancha.cn based on publicly available information and do not constitute investment advice. Please verify before using.