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Tag: Wang Jianlin

  • China’s e-commerce giants to buy Dalian Wanda malls

    China’s e-commerce giants to buy Dalian Wanda malls

    Three Chinese e-commerce giants led by Tencent are buying into shopping centres as part of an alliance that will help fund property magnate Wang Jianlin’s HK$30 billion (US$3.8 billion) plan to take his Dalian Wanda Group private.

    Jianlin describes it as the world’s biggest single alliance between the new economy and bricks-and-mortar businesses as he vows to turn his flagship commercial property unit into an online-to-offline service provider.

    After shedding properties in Australia, China and the UK to help reduce debt, he is now selling off nearly 14 per cent of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties to some of the mainland’s biggest internet and retail players.

    An investor group led by Tencent, along with e-commerce heavyweight JD.com, electronics retailer Suning and Wanda partner Sunac China Holdings, the stake is being sold for RMB34 billion (US$4.36 billion).

    On its website, Wanda presents the share sale as part of a transformation of the company from a real-estate developer with nearly 240 shopping centres across China into a commercial management company focused on integrating online and offline consumption.

    As part of the deal, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties will be renamed Wanda Commercial Management Group.

    However, the new partners may lead the financing of new malls, with the website statement noting “Tencent, Suning and other investors will use their financial prowess to continuously support Wanda Commercial to speed up its growth, helping the company to achieve its goal of 1000 Wanda Plazas in China as early as possible”.in

    Wanda says the partners are keen to relist the commercial real-estate unit, still privately held after a 2016 buyout led by Wang, “at the earliest opportunity”.

    Also, the new group will use the online resources of Tencent, Suning and JD.com as well as its own offline commercial assets to “carry out various collaborations, jointly building a new consumption model in China that will integrate both online and offline services”.

    Wanda Commercial’s total debt at the end of June was RMB279 billion, according to ratings agency S&P.

    Tencent’s investment of RMB10 billion gives it a 4.12 per cent stake, while Suning and Sunac’s twin outlays of RMB9.5 billion will them a 3.91 per cent stake each, and JD.com’s RMB5 billion yields a 2 per cent stake.

    Meanwhile, WeChat owner Tencent last week said it might buy into French retailer Carrefour’s China business, along with local retailer Yonghui Superstores. This follows Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods for US$13.7 billion.

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  • Dalian Wanda revenue drops 14pc

    Dalian Wanda revenue drops 14pc

    Dalian Wanda Group’s revenue has fallen for the first time in at least 11 years after a slump in its property business outweighed growth from its entertainment interests.

    Sales last year fell 14 per cent from 2015, while revenue at  Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, the group’s real-estate unit, dropped 25 per cent to 143 billion yuan (US$20.8 billion).

    Wanda’s operating income rose 3.4 per cent to 255 billion yuan, while profit grew more than 10 per cent, it said, without giving details.

    Wanda’s owner billionaire Wang Jianlin, China’s second-richest man, has been acquiring Hollywood assets – he bought movie production company Legendary Entertainment last year – to help Wanda diversify away from its real-estate roots.

    He told employees at Wanda’s annual meeting in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province in eastern China, that Ffan.com, a unit that includes internet financing and credit-rating businesses, will raise 10 billion yuan via a private placement this year. He ultimately plans to list the unit by 2020 and target profit of more than 10 billion yuan.

    Wang delisted Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties in Hong Kong last year with the idea of eventually seeking a listing in mainland China, where valuations tend to be higher. He has taken an “asset-light” strategy for his real-estate business in recent years, reducing reliance on property sales and increasing his focus on leasing and management.

    Wanda Cultural Industry Group, which oversees most of Wanda’s theme parks, film production and exhibition businesses, saw sales climb 25 per cent to 64.1 billion yuan last year.

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  • Wanda said to plan massive retail-leisure project near Paris

    Wanda said to plan massive retail-leisure project near Paris

    Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group Co. plans to invest billions of euros in a retail and leisure development outside of Paris, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

    Wang said at the University of Oxford on Tuesday that Wanda would announce a “major deal” this week, though he didn’t provide details.

    The project, known as EuropaCity, will be built in Gonesse, a town 16 kilometers northeast of Paris, between Le Bourget and Charles de Gaulle airports, according to a website for the property.

    For Wanda, which runs theme parks across China, movie theater chains in the United States and a soccer club in Spain, the move represents a renewed overseas push, underscoring Wang’s increasingly global ambitions.

    The conglomerate agreed in January to buy “Godzilla” producer Legendary Entertainment for US$3.5 billion, paving the way for the tycoon to become the first Chinese person to control a Hollywood film company.

    Construction on EuropaCity is slated to begin in 2019, with the project opening in 2024, according to the website.

    The development, being built by property company Immochan, will include a theme park, shopping center, water and snow parks, sports fields, performance spaces and hotels, according to the site.

    Immochan is the development arm of Groupe Auchan, a family-owned supermarket operator. A spokesman for Immochan declined to comment.

    Wang, who is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index to be worth US$27.2 billion, told executives in January that visitor arrivals and revenue at Wanda’s tourism projects in Wuxi and Guangzhou will beat those of Disneyland in Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively.

    Besides the Legendary deal, Wanda announced a US$2.3 billion investment in three hospitals, the formation of a financial group and the signing a US$10 billion development deal in India.

    In addition, Wanda has said it’s planning five major acquisitions in 2016, three of them overseas.

    Separately, the group’s Wanda Cinema Line Co. theater chain unit was suspended from trading in Shenzhen on Wednesday pending the announcement of an acquisition.

    The Wall Street Journal reported that the group is seeking to raise US$1.5 billion from domestic Chinese investors for its closely held film-making Wanda Pictures subsidiary.

    While Wang’s investments in Europe include the Club Atletico de Madrid soccer team and Swiss marketing firm Infront Sports & Media AG, Wanda’s culture-and-entertainment business has a relatively smaller presence in the region than in China.

    Wang’s film, tourism and sports operations all fall under Wanda’s fast-growing Cultural Industry Group, which saw revenue climb 46 percent last year and is forecast to climb 30 percent in 2016.

    By comparison, Wanda Group estimates overall sales rose 19 percent in 2015 and will probably decline 12 percent this year because of the slump in its property business.