HONG KONG, May 8 (Reuters) - U.S. investment firm Bain

Capital is seeking to sell the China business of data centre

operator WinTriX DC Group, in a deal that could value the

business at over $4 billion, two people with knowledge of the

situation said.

Bain Capital has engaged with advisers who have held

preliminary conversations with potential buyers in recent

months, said the people, declining to be named as the

information was not public.

The China business of WinTriX, formerly known as Chindata

Group Holdings, has estimated 2025 earnings before interest,

taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of close to 4

billion yuan, they said.

Bain Capital declined to comment. The data centre operator

did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The potential deal comes nearly two years after Bain Capital

took Nasdaq-listed Chindata private in a $3.16 billion deal.

Bain Capital first acquired Chinese data centre operator

Chindata in 2019 and merged it with Southeast Asia data centre

operator Bridge Data Centres in the same year. The listed entity

was a combination of both.

Since the take-private, the Boston-based firm separated the

two businesses again under WinTriX, said a third person with

knowledge of the situation.

The sale also comes as data centre valuations have soared in

the last few years, driven by rapid developments of artificial

intelligence.

Last year Australian data centre operator AirTrunk was sold

to a Blackstone-led consortium for over 20 times its forward

core earnings, Reuters reported.

WinTriX's Chinese rival GDS Holdings ( GDS ) is currently

trading at a price-to-earnings multiple of 8.48 times, LSEG data

showed.

Fitch Ratings however in February downgraded WinTriX's

long-term foreign- and local-currency issuer default ratings to

"BB" from "BBB" with a stable outlook, which it said reflected

its expectations that WinTriX would face significantly higher

business risks as it changed its strategy to focus on overseas

investment.

Fitch cited slower hyperscale data centre demand and higher

competition in China as one of the additional risks WinTriX

would face.

WinTriX counts social media giant Bytedance as its largest

customer, which contributed to 86% of its revenue in 2022,

according to the Fitch report.

Outside China, it also operates data centres in India and

Malaysia.

In March, WinTriX's unit Bridge Data Centres, which operates

data centres outside China, secured a $2.8 billion bank

financing to fuel its data centre expansion, it said at the

time.

Bain Capital will keep its control of Bridge Data Centres

for the time being, said the sources.