GDS Holdings (GDS) Q1 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2022

May 18, 2022 8:00 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for GDS Holdings Limited's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After managements prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the call over to your host, Ms. Laura Chen, Head of Investor Relations for the company. Please go ahead, Laura.

Laura Chen

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call of GDS Holdings Limited. The company's results were issued via Newswire Services earlier today and are posted online. A summary presentation, which we will refer to during this conference call can be viewed and downloaded from our IR website at investorsgdsservices.com.

Leading today's call is Mr. William Huang, GDS Founder, Chairman and CEO, who will provide an overview of our business strategy and performance; Mr. Dan Newman, GDS CFO, will then review the financial and operating results; Ms. Jamie Khoo, our COO, is also available to answer questions.

Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today.

Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's perspective as filed with US SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.

Please note that, GDS earnings press release and this conference call, includes discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. GDS press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited most directly comparable GAAP measures.

I will now turn the call over to GDS Founder, Chairman and CEO, William. Please go ahead, William.

William Huang

Thank you. Hello, everyone. This is William. Thank you for joining us on today's call. We are operating in a difficult environment. Everyone is having to deal with unprecedented challenges, including the recent COVID lockdown in China. GDS business is resilient and defensive. We generate recurring revenues, underpinned by long-term contracts with high quality customers. Despite the challenges, I'm pleased to report a solid set of results for the first quarter. We grew revenue by 32% and adjusted EBITDA by 29% year-on-year. We continued to win new business with 18,000 square meters of net additional customer commitments. We strengthened our funding position by raising US$620 million from a convertible bond issued to strategic investors, and completed a further US$530 million of project financing.