Near the end of the year, Wanda’s news was frequent. First, Wanda Film was completely sold, and then there were rumors that Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management would transfer Wanda Plaza in first- and second-tier cities.
A few years ago, Wanda, which had "sold off" Wanda Cultural Tourism and Wanda Hotels, and had a strong man break his wrist, is now going to "cut off his arm" again, but this time the situation he has to face is more dangerous than before.
However, this housing leader, who was the first to face the real estate industry’s storms, is still on the table despite years of difficult mediation and repeated broken arms to survive.
Unfortunate, but fortunate.
Because compared to several other giants that have been blown away by the rain, it is undoubtedly much more decent.
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Wanda’s deadline is only more than 20 days away.
According to the gambling agreement, if Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management cannot complete the listing within the year, it will pay a total of 38 billion yuan in cash and interest due at the end of the year to repurchase the shares in the hands of investors.
This year is already the third year that Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has impacted the Hong Kong IPO. In June this year, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has also submitted a prospectus for the fourth time.
Now, with only 20 days left until the end of the year, the chances of going public are slim.
Legend has it that the plan for listing extension has also been rejected, and the rest may only be paid 38 billion this way.
In addition to the well-known listing crisis, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management also faces considerable performance pressure.
Previously, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has made performance commitments to Tencent, Ant, CITIC Capital and other investors.Commitment to the period from 2021 to 2023, the actual net profit will not be less than 5.19 billion yuan, 7.43 billion yuan and 9.46 billion yuan respectively.
If the performance does not meet the target, Zhuhai Wanying, a shareholder of Dalian Wanda Commercial and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, will transfer the relevant amount of shares at zero consideration or pay cash to investors to compensate investors.
However, Zhuhai Wanda Business Management’s net profit in 2021 was 3.512 billion yuan, which did not meet the target. The net profit in 2022 was 7.534 billion yuan, which is only just reached the target.
So in the coming 2023, can the goal of net profit of 9.46 billion yuan be achieved? It is difficult to say.
After all, Wanda can’t even take out 600 million dollars now.
At the end of November, Wanda Commercial Management announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it plans to roll over a $600 million bond due in January 2024.
Fortunately, the plan was quickly approved by bondholders in less than two weeks, and the investor support ratio reached 99.3%.
The plan can be passed so quickly,Part of the reason is that compared with other real estate companies, Wanda’s extension plan seems more "conscientious". The extension time is only one year, which is not too long, and it will be paid off in four installments within the year.If creditors agree in advance, the total consent fee of 1.24% is also higher than the 1% common to other housing companies.
Another part of the reason is that Wanda’s business operations are still good, especially Wanda Plaza. In the first half of 2023, Wanda Plaza opened 12 new ones, with a total of 484 openings. The total rental income was 26.32 billion yuan, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year, and the net rent was 13.01 billion yuan, an increase of 7.2% year-on-year. At the same time, Wanda Plaza’s rental rate was 98.2%, and the rent collection rate was 100%.
Even with the rent of Wanda Plaza, the 600 million dollars is only a matter of time. But the problem is that Wanda Plaza has now become one of the chips for Wanda to put on the table.
Recently, news has leaked that Wanda Commercial Management has revealed in the process of communicating with investors that the group is currently willing to sell Wanda Plaza in first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity, and is still negotiating with insurance institutions.
Further specific rumors are that a major insurance company is about to acquire Shanghai Jinshan Wanda Plaza, which has been inspected on the spot and has passed the negotiation period. Another Shanghai Maqiao Wanda Plaza is also in the transfer of shelves, and the management is still picking.
Although the dust has not yet settled, Wanda has sold five Wanda plazas in succession this year, so the rumors are indeed quite credible.
Wanda, which held a lot of high-quality assets, was now playing cards one by one in order to pass smoothly before the end of the year, and Wanda Plaza was just one of them. After all, the day before the rumors of Wanda Plaza appeared, Wang Jianlin had just completely changed hands with Wanda Film.
In the past year, Wang Jianlin has transferred the equity of Wanda Film three times. Although the selling price has been lower each time, Wanda Film has been firmly in Wang Jianlin’s hands.
Until this time,Wang Jianlin will Beijing Wanda investment 51% equity, at the price of 2.262 billion yuan transferred to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd., Wanda Film also completely sold.
What few people know is that Shanghai Confucianism is actually inextricably linked to real estate.
Behind Shanghai Ruyi is China Ruyi, formerly known as Hengteng Network. Hengteng Network was originally invested by Tencent and Evergrande, and later Tencent withdrew its investment. But after Evergrande fell into the debt crisis, it sold its shares one after another, and Tencent became the largest shareholder of Hengteng Network, which was later renamed China Ruyi.
After Wanda encountered a crisis, Confucianism became the snake that swallowed the elephant, Wanda Film, with the support of Tencent.
In the film industry, Wanda Film is a veritable "elephant". In the first three quarters of this year, Wanda Film’s performance reversed the trend, with operating income reaching 11.35 billion yuan, an increase of 47% year-on-year. Net profit also turned into profit, and profit 1.104 billion yuan.
It can be said that Wanda Film is one of Wanda’s veritable high-quality assets. For Wang Jianlin, who has always wanted to make Wanda Film "Hollywood in China", this sale is helpless.
Once upon a time, Wang Jianlin could withstand the doubts of 99% of investors, and went into the film industry with his own will. With the goal of "China’s first" and "world’s first", he frantically acquired Hollywood production companies to seize the market, and once achieved the world’s largest cinema market share.
But now, unable to withstand the pressure of reality, Wang Jianlin decided to cut off his arm and completely cut off the film business.
Wang Jianlin finally bowed his head to reality.
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From being the richest man in China, to becoming the first "negative" in China, to raising 600 billion successfully slimming through the crisis in three years, becoming the richest man in real estate again, and now, having to run around again to raise money, Wang Jianlin has tasted the ups and downs that many people will never experience in their lifetime.
From 2015 to 2016, Wang Jianlin was the richest man in China on the Hurun Rich List for two consecutive years, with a net worth of nearly 220 billion yuan.
However, such a huge asset, built on perennial loans and debts, was like a bubble, bursting with a poke. In 2017, Wang Jianlin and Wanda’s debt ratio had reached 70%, and according to the disclosed information, Wang Jianlin had loaned more than 400 billion yuan to banks at that time.
At this time, the market has gradually cooled, coupled with the failure of overseas investment, Wanda’s vitality has been greatly damaged, and Wang Jianlin’s debt has soared to 600 billion yuan, suddenly becoming China’s first "negative".
In order to pay off the 600 billion yuan debt, Wang Jianlin began a crazy sale.
The prologue is the rumor that once talked about "breaking the cup" and the "great merger of the century" with total assets exceeding 63 billion yuan.
In 2017, Wanda sold 13 of its highly anticipated cultural tourism projects to Sunac China for 43.844 billion yuan, and 77 of its hotels to R & F for 19.906 billion.
Although the deal could be said to be a fire sale in terms of price, it successfully helped Wanda reduce its leverage, reduce its debt, obtain cash flow, and temporarily recover from the loan crisis.
Then, Wang Jianlin’s pace of selling assets never stopped. First, he sold Wanda Plaza in Jiujiang, Nanchang, Yancheng and other places in China to Pearl River Life Insurance. Later, he publicly stated that he would put his main investment in China and gradually liquidated overseas real estate projects.
Wanda first sold the Spanish mansion it bought in 2014 for 265 million euros for 272 million euros, losing nearly 200 million yuan in exchange rate changes. It later sold the much-anticipated Wanda London ONE project for about 59.35 million pounds, followed by two projects in Australia’s Gold Coast, Sydney and Chicago properties.
In 2018, Wang Jianlin resold shares in Wanda Commercial and Wanda Cinemas. Subsequently, AMC, the world’s largest cinema chain, which Wanda had invested a lot of effort in, was also reluctantly parted ways, and its shares were gradually sold by Wanda.
In May 2021, Wanda fully withdrew from the board of directors of AMC, retained only a minority stake, and accumulated $1.476 billion in funds, and Wanda gradually recovered from the "embarrassment".
However, in 2022, Wanda, which had recovered, quickly began to invest on a large scale, making great strides in the sluggish real estate market, and the shadow of high debt once again struck.
However, compared to the major private developers who either disappeared completely behind closed doors or ran away directly, Wang Jianlin has always appeared in the public eye, running around for Wanda, giving many people confidence.
Since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has sold his own stocks many times, and returned 7 billion cash to Wanda to return blood, so that several maturing bond payment problems have been solved.
But in a recent public appearance, Wang Jianlin, who is so skinny, suddenly made people realize that Wanda was no longer the Wanda who was full of Wang fried, and Wang Jianlin was no longer the ambitious "white knight".
Five years ago, Wanda could still sell Wanda Hotels and Wanda Cultural Tourism. But now, after the sale of Wanda Film, Wanda, which focuses on "light assets", seems to have no more cards to play.
The Wanda Group, which was about to lose weight, was left with only a worried Wang Jianlin.
III. Conclusion
Looking back, Wanda used to diversify through crazy mergers and acquisitions and reached its peak, but it was burdened by diversification overnight, began to lose weight, and turned to an asset-light model. Now, after repeatedly breaking arms to survive, it has become more and more "light".
It was precisely in response to what he wrote in his own hand back then, "After years of business wars and wealth, everything has always been in vain."
However, as long as he didn’t leave the card table, even if he was facing a huge crisis now, even if he had to cut off his arm to survive, why not?
Living is more important than anything else.
