After Wang Jianlin lost wanda plaza, what is left to bet on or become a new track

On March 30th, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group (hereinafter referred to as "Wanda Commercial Management") reached an investment agreement with investment companies such as Taimeng Investment Group. With an investment of about 60 billion yuan, Wanda Commercial Management’s shareholding in Dalian Xindameng fell to 40%, which means that Wang Jianlin lost his absolute control over wanda plaza.

Many years ago, Wang Jianlin expressed his deep affection for wanda plaza. At that time, the annual rental income of Wanda Commercial Management was as high as 32.88 billion yuan. In 2023, in response to the pressure that the gambling agreement of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Company was about to expire, Wang Jianlin continued to sell his assets, including transferring the controlling stake in WANDA CINEMAS and 14 wanda plaza. This series of measures is reminiscent of 2017. Due to the liquidity crisis, he decisively sold 13 Wanda Travel Cities and 76 star-rated hotels, and successfully withdrew 63.7 billion yuan.

Today, despite the investment of 60 billion yuan, Wang Jianlin has lost absolute control over Wanda Commercial Management, the core asset, and his personal wealth has dropped sharply from 200 billion yuan to 47 billion yuan in 2023. Wang Jianlin, who is nearly seventy years old, what else does he have in his hand?

It all started with letting go of Dalian Wanda Football Team. Ironically, the signing ceremony of the investment agreement in which Wang Jianlin lost absolute control over Wanda Commercial Management was chosen at the same place where he bid farewell to Dalian Wanda Football Team-Shangri-La Hotel, Dalian. In 1994, Wang Jianlin took over Dalian Football Team and changed its name to Dalian Wanda Team. The team became the overlord of the league under its command, and the Wanda brand became famous, and quickly jumped from a regional housing enterprise to a national real estate giant. However, Wang Jianlin was disheartened by various problems in the China Football League. In 1999, he transferred his own champion team to Shide, and angrily declared: "Wanda will quit China football forever."

In 2018, Wang Jianlin made a high-profile return and took over the Dalian Club. Later, he invested heavily in the introduction of carrasco, Gaitan and other stars, and invested 2 billion yuan to support the youth training base project. However, in 2020, Wanda stated that it did not acquire the equity of the club, and the club account could not be used normally. Until January this year, Dalian People’s Football Club (the former Dalian side) announced its dissolution. The official explanation was that "historical debts could not be resolved and the club could not operate normally", in the final analysis, it was a shortage of funds. This reflects the tension of Wang Jianlin and Wanda’s own financial situation and their inability to transfuse blood for football.

On the one hand, the second defeat of Wang Jianlin’s football career stems from the deep-seated problems left by Jinyuan football, and Wanda failed to completely solve the club debt after taking over; On the other hand, Wanda Commercial Management’s IPO has been blocked repeatedly, and the cash flow of the group has become increasingly tight, making it unable to invest in such "sentimental undertakings" as football. In March of this year, the sponsorship dispute between Wanda and FIFA caused concern. It is reported that Wanda failed to pay the money on schedule, which led to the suspension of sponsors’ rights and interests. In 2016, Wanda signed a 15-year cooperation agreement with FIFA, becoming one of the top sponsors, and it needs to pay 850 million US dollars between 2016 and 2030. Now, more than half of the agreement, Wanda has been unable to bear the sponsorship fee.

The difficulty in the field of football reflects the dilemma of Wanda’s operation. Football investment is more of a "ticket-playing" behavior for the group, and the commercial return is difficult to match the huge investment. Therefore, when Wanda itself is in trouble, football naturally becomes a burden to be rid of.

Wang Jianlin is known for his forward-looking vision. This insight has helped him to take advantage of the rise of real estate, enhance his popularity through football, and take the lead in successfully escaping from the real estate liquidity crisis by selling assets. In 2017, in the face of the liquidity crisis, Wang Jianlin took decisive action and sold 91% equity of 13 cultural tourism projects and 77 city hotels to Sunac and R&F respectively at a price of 63.75 billion yuan, achieving the largest transaction in the history of real estate, which was called "century transaction".

After the crisis, Wanda made every effort to promote the strategy of light assets. Wang Jianlin made it clear: "Wanda Commercial must divest all real estate businesses and become a purely commercial operation enterprise." Today, Wanda’s business model has been successfully transformed, but it still needs to complete the key link of listing.

In order to achieve the listing goal, Wang Jianlin introduced a number of strategic investors and signed gambling agreements with some investors. However, the prospectus submitted for the third time in 2023 still failed to go public successfully. Facing the expiration of the gambling agreement, Wang Jianlin began to sell assets on a large scale to ease the financial pressure.

Wanda revealed in the 2023 semi-annual report that due to factors such as the blocked refinancing channels in the open market and the unsatisfactory listing process of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, bond price fluctuations intensified and refinancing became more difficult. To this end, Wang Jianlin had to pledge his shares in Wanda Hotel and reduce his holdings in WANDA CINEMAS to raise funds.

In July last year, in just one month, Wang Jianlin sold WANDA CINEMAS’s equity three times, and the price was gradually reduced. After the fourth transfer was completed in December last year, WANDA CINEMAS’s largest shareholder changed to Shanghai Confucianism, and Wang Jianlin lost control of WANDA CINEMAS. WANDA CINEMAS was once a high-quality asset owned by Wang Jianlin, and his "Disney Movie Dream" was also shattered.

What is even more surprising is that Wang Jianlin sold many wanda plaza that he had vowed to "never give up". According to statistics, since 2023, Wanda Group has sold 14 wanda plaza. It is reported that Wanda is considering selling its 20 commercial centers, each with a valuation of about 700 million to 800 million yuan.

On March 20th this year, wanda plaza under construction on Nanning University East Road was renamed as "Guangxi Chengxi Wan Mao Commercial Management Co., Ltd.", and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Company completely withdrew from the list of shareholders, which was the 15th wanda plaza sold by Wanda Commercial Management Company. Compared with the hot discussion caused by the sale of the top 14 seats, the public seems to acquiesce in the established fact of "wanda plaza Sale".

After losing wanda plaza, what career does Wang Jianlin have left to continue to exert his fists and feet? From Wanda official website’s related reports about Wang Jianlin, we may get a glimpse of clues. In 2023, Wang Jianlin traveled all over the country, inspecting and signing projects, focusing on the cultural tourism industry, such as Beijing Jinhai Lake, Luoyang Baima Temple and Guiyang Eco-city.

Perhaps, with the recovery and prosperity of tourism, Wang Jianlin will use his proven unique vision to lead Wanda to grasp the business opportunities in the cultural tourism market.