:A unit of China's state-owned conglomerate China Merchants Group has made a $3.4 billion offer to acquire Chindata Group, as the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence technologies has boosted data center demand.
U.S.-listed shares of the data center operator rose about 12 per cent to $8.10.
Chindata, which designs and operates data centers in China, India and Southeast Asia, draws interest as enterprise clients look to optimize their spending on technologies that could help trim costs.
The preliminary offer from China Merchants Capital Holdings outbids Bain Capital in battle to buy Chindata Group. U.S. private investment firm Bain Capital offered to buy Chindata for $2.93 billion in June, valuing its each American depositary share (ADS) at $8.
China Merchants' offer price of $9.20 represents a premium of 15 per cent to Bain's offer price.