author | Yue Jiachen
editor | Wang Weikai
production | Prism·Tencent Xiaoman Studio
1.63 million square meters, equivalent to the combined construction area of 6.3 Bird's Nests. This is the total construction area of the 11 Wanda Plazas that Wanda Group has sold since 2023.
"Sell, sell, sell" has become a key word for Wanda in the past year. From Wanda's movie equity, to Wanda Plaza and Wanda Hotel's heavy assets, to the group headquarters building...Wanda has almost sold its most precious assets.
On April 12, the equity of Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. changed. The company holds Beijing Wanda Plaza, where Wanda’s headquarters is located.
Following the change of ownership of Wanda’s headquarters, Wanda Movies also officially changed ownership. On April 17, Wanda Film issued the "Announcement on the Completion of the Equity Transfer of the Indirect Controlling Shareholder and the Change of the Company's Control Rights". The shares held by Wanda Cultural Group and Wang Jianlin have completed the industrial and commercial change registration, and the transferee is Shanghai Ruyi.
With the sale of the headquarters building assets and the change of Wanda Film’s equity, Wanda Film has begun to move from its original group headquarters, Wanda Plaza Building B, No. 93 Jianguo Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, to Laijin Cultural and Creative Industrial Park.
"Mr. Wang has always done things vigorously and resolutely, and he is a ruthless person. When the company encounters a crisis, he dares to cut off his own strength and sell off all his most precious assets." A former Wanda employee said to the author.
The "2024 Hurun Global Rich List" released by Hurun Research Institute shows that in the past year, Wang Jianlin's family wealth has dropped by 80 billion yuan, a shrinkage of 72%. In 2023, the wealth of Wang Jianlin's family dropped by 50 billion yuan.
In just two years, Wang Jianlin's assets have shrunk by 1,300 "small targets." After a series of asset fire sales, Wang Jianlin's family wealth was left with only 30 billion yuan.
sold the headquarters building
Recently, Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. has undergone equity changes. The original wholly-owned shareholder Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. has withdrawn, and the new shareholder Kunhua (Tianjin) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) holds 99.99 shares. %, is the controlling shareholder; Kunyuan Chenxing (Xiamen) Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd. holds 0.01% of the shares.
This has attracted outside attention to Wanda’s sale of the group headquarters.
"We have always owned Tower B of the Beijing Wanda Plaza office building." A staff member of the leasing department of Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. told the author of "Prism". This office building is where Wanda’s Beijing headquarters is located.
A former Wanda employee also told the author that Beijing Wanda Plaza had previously been owned by Wanda Group.
Beijing Wanda Plaza consists of three buildings: Tower A, Tower B, and Tower C. It is located at No. 93 Jianguo Road, close to the CBD and the new site of CCTV. According to the above-mentioned person in charge of leasing, Tower A is currently owned by small owners, while Towers B and C are self-owned. Tower C is currently the Beijing Wanda Vista Hotel, and Tower B is an office building.
An employee of the company in charge of bidding and an employee of the Mandarin Hotel also told the "Prism" author that the company holds the assets of Tower B and Tower C of Beijing Wanda Plaza, which are the core assets of Wanda Group in Beijing.
Currently, in addition to being the headquarters building of Wanda Group, Tower B of Beijing Wanda Plaza is also renting out some floors. The above-mentioned person in charge of leasing said that the minimum rent for this office building is 8 yuan per square meter per day, and it is located in the same building as Wanda Group.
Tower C of Beijing Wanda Plaza was once the Wanda Sofitel Hotel and was renamed Wanda Vista Hotel in 2007. Wanda Group’s annual meetings in recent years have been held at the hotel. Tianyancha shows that Wanda Vista Hotel is a subsidiary of Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd.
Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. was established in 1999 and was formerly known as Beijing Wanda Plaza Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. This company is the developer of the above-mentioned Beijing Wanda Plaza.
According to Wanda’s official website, Beijing Wanda Plaza opened in December 2006. In 2008, Wanda's headquarters moved from Dalian to Beijing Wanda Plaza.
The purpose of selling Wanda Plazas in other cities is consistent with the previous sale. The sale of Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. is still to relieve liquidity pressure.
According to Tianyancha, Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. has a registered capital of 200 million yuan. In September last year, the company’s equity was pledged to Huaxin International Trust Co., Ltd.
19.6 billion in cash on hand, 114.3 billion in short-term debt
Two weeks before selling the headquarters building assets, Wanda had just received a 60 billion yuan investment.
On March 30, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management officially signed an investment agreement with five institutions including PAG Investment Group and CITIC Capital. The five investors jointly invested approximately 60 billion yuan in Dalian Xinda League, holding a total of 60% of the shares. After the investment is completed, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management holds 40% of the shares.
"Even with 60 billion yuan of investment, the non-stop asset sales mean that Wanda has not yet reached the true safety zone." A person who has followed Wanda for a long time told the author.
Wanda’s debt seems to be a bottomless pit. According to the 2023 tracking rating report of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management released by China Chengxin International, as of the end of the first quarter of 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management’s liabilities totaled 310.536 billion yuan.
As of the end of 2022, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management has 19.631 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, and as much as 114.3 billion yuan of debt due within one year. This also explains why Wang Jianlin started frantically selling off assets in 2023 to "recover blood."
"Fortunately, Wanda still has many high-quality assets that can be liquidated. Many Wanda Plazas are located in the city center and have huge flow of people." A former employee of Wanda Group told the author.
Since 2023, Wanda Group has transferred heavy assets of 11 Wanda Plazas. From December 25 to 30, 2023 alone, four Wanda Plazas were intensively transferred, namely Suzhou Taicang Wanda Plaza, Huzhou Wanda Plaza, Guangzhou Luogang Wanda Plaza and Shanghai Jinshan Wanda Plaza.
Previously in October 2023, the insurance institution Dajia Insurance acquired Shanghai Zhoupu Wanda Plaza. At the end of May 2023, Dajia Insurance also acquired three shopping malls: Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Xining Haihu Wanda Plaza and Jiangmen Taishan Wanda Plaza.
On March 20 this year, Tianjin Jizhou District Wanda Plaza Commercial Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes. Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group withdrew and Beijing Tianding Kunyang Technology Co., Ltd. became a wholly-owned shareholder.
According to information on equity changes, funds and insurance companies are the main buyers of Wanda Plaza. Judging from the nature of the transactions, the Wanda Plazas "fired" are all heavy assets, which means that Wanda Group is no longer the owner of the above-mentioned Wanda Plazas, but it is still the operator of these Wanda Plazas.
Wanda did not disclose the consideration of these transactions. However, according to a former Wanda employee told the author, when the assets are sold, it is estimated that each Wanda Plaza can be sold for 700 million yuan, but the transaction amount varies between different projects.
Asset-light transformation
In the past, the four products of Wanda Plaza, Wanda Movies, Wanda Hotels and Wanda Cultural Tourism City were like the head of a carriage, pulling the huge business empire of Wanda. However, as these valuable assets in the past have been successively disposed of, what is left of Wang Jianlin’s Wanda?
The first assets Wang Jianlin sold were hotels and cultural tourism cities. In 2017, Wang Jianlin sold 77 hotels to R&F and 13 cultural tourism cities to Sunac. This transaction was called the "deal of the century" at the time.
"Holding large luxury hotels is not a good business." A real estate industry insider said, "The return on capital of five-star hotels is too low." Now, R&F Group, which has taken over Wanda's 77 hotels, has already filed for bankruptcy. all.
With the recent equity transfer of Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd., Wanda has lost its flagship hotel assets in the two core cities of Beijing and Shanghai. On December 26 last year, Shanghai Wanda Reign Hotel changed owners. Wanda Reign is the most high-end brand of Wanda Hotels.
2020 is another turning point for Wanda. In September 2020, Wanda Commercial Management announced that it would no longer develop asset-heavy projects, no longer invest in and hold Wanda Plaza properties, and fully implement an asset-light strategy.
After this, Wanda Plaza was divided into two modes: light and heavy. Among them, the asset-heavy platform is Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, which owns Wanda Plaza properties. The asset-light operating platform is Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, which was previously planned to be listed. It does not hold properties, and its income mainly includes operation management service fees, property management fees and value-added service fees.
Through equity penetration, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management is the core asset of Wanda Group, which is wholly owned by Wang Jianlin and his son.
Judging from the names of the subsidiaries, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's subsidiaries are mostly named "XX Wanda Plaza Investment Co., Ltd.", and its 194 subsidiaries hold the assets of Wanda Plazas across the country. Most of the Wanda Plaza assets that have been sold off over the past year are owned by Dalian Wanda Commercial Management.
Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management was invested and established by Dalian Wanda Commercial Management in 2021, and its subsidiary names are mostly "XX Wanda Plaza Commercial Management Co., Ltd.".
At that time, Wanda implemented a light-asset strategy mainly because light assets were more likely to gain favor from the capital market, but this did not mean that it would stop developing and holding heavy assets. “The group’s strategy at that time was not to get rid of real estate, but to divest real estate from Wanda Commercial Management, which would help increase valuation.” A Wanda insider explained to the author.
Wanda originally planned to package these operational service businesses into Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management for listing. However, Wanda Commercial Management's road to listing ultimately failed.
Late last year, it was reported that Wanda also planned to sell about 40 Wanda Plazas in first- and second-tier cities and was communicating with potential buyers. However, the author of "Prism" consulted many Wanda employees or people who have worked for Wanda, and none of them could confirm the news that as many as 40 Wanda Plazas are for sale.
After "selling blood", how to "make blood"?
Under the "sell, sell, sell" situation, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's "blood-making" ability is also weakening. In 2022, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management’s net cash inflow from operating activities was 9.685 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 57%. After the massive sell-off of
, what sustainable assets does Wang Jianlin have left in his hands? After
sold most of its cultural tourism and hotel assets in 2017, the business management business became the core asset of Wanda Group.
According to the previous prospectus, from 2020 to 2022, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management’s revenue was 17.196 billion yuan, 23.481 billion yuan and 27.12 billion yuan respectively, and its net profits were 1.112 billion yuan, 3.512 billion yuan and 7.534 billion yuan respectively. As a light asset management company, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management mainly provides Wanda Plaza with investment promotion, management operations, security and other services.
According to the previous prospectus, Wanda Commercial Management’s asset-light model is divided into leasing operation model and entrusted management model. Leasing operation means that Wanda Commercial Management leases the assets of the owners for leasing, while entrusted management means that the owners entrust Wanda to attract investment. , operate, and pay a certain service fee. As an asset-light operating company,
’s ability to expand projects is crucial. Data shows that in the three years from 2020 to 2022, 149 new Wanda Plazas were added, of which light asset projects accounted for more than 80%.
According to Wanda Commercial Management’s previously disclosed prospectus, as of December 31, 2022, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management managed a total of 472 commercial plazas, of which 184 were owned by independent third parties, accounting for 39% of the total number of commercial plazas under management.
’s prospectus at the time stated that in 2022, the average occupancy rate of commercial plazas under management by Wanda Commercial Management would be as high as 98.6%.
In terms of hotels, as of the end of 2023, Wanda Hotel Development has 157 hotels under management. The prospectus of Wanda Hotel Development disclosed the operating model of the hotel business, including leasing operation, management model and franchising. Under the management model, Wanda grants relevant brand licenses to owners, and Wanda appoints a hotel management team to be responsible for hotel management and collects management fees from the owners.
Wanda Hotels' brands include 9 brands including Wanda Reign, Wanda Vista, Wanda Realm, and Wanda Jinhua.
However, in 2023, the occupancy rate of Wanda Hotels is only 55.9%. In 2023, Wanda Hotel Development's revenue was only 983 million yuan, with net profit of 191 million yuan, down 18% year-on-year, and its total market value was only 921 million yuan.
In addition, Wanda Movies has now officially changed hands. On December 6 last year, Wanda Film announced that Wang Jianlin planned to transfer 51% of Beijing Wanda Investment to Shanghai Ruyi. As industrial and commercial changes are being completed, Wang Jianlin has lost control of Wanda Films.
