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After selling off all the time, what assets does Wang Jianlin have left?

Author | Zhan Fangge

Editor | Xing Yun

"Catch the Doll" became the most popular movie of the summer, followed by "Silent Killing".Wanda FilmWith the presence of Wanda Film, which had poor revenue in the first half of the year, it is finally expected to make a comeback with the summer season. However, this is only a small consolation for Wang Jianlin.

In April this year, Wanda Film changed its ownership, and Wanda’s investment in it was less than 8%.The benefits from hit movies are very limited.

In recent years, selling assets has become the keyword for Wanda, and almost all the news related to Wanda is negative. However, in June this year, Wang Jianlin and his son Wang Sicong returned to the top 10 of the New Fortune Rich List after a lapse of four years.

What is the situation of Wanda? What does Wang Jianlin have left now? Has Wanda's cash flow crisis really passed? Perhaps we can find the answers to these many questions in the public financial data.

1. What exactly is left of Wanda?

After a series of asset sales, Wanda lost control of at least 20 Wanda Plazas, including its Beijing headquarters, and Wanda Film, a listed company. So, what assets does Wang Jianlin have left now?

Rumor has it that Wang Jianlin once said many years ago:“Wanda can lose any of its businesses, but not Wanda Commercial.”This is still true today.

Even though it is constantly involved in the sale storm, the asset package with Wanda Plaza as the main component and hotels and other businesses as the auxiliary components is still Wang Jianlin's most core asset. Currently, these assets are all in Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dalian Wanda Commercial Management").

December 2023, fromYonghui SupermarketAn announcement from the , revealed the current valuation of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management: about 316.783 billion yuan. In 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management generated revenue of 52.325 billion yuan. In comparison, before Wang Jianlin lost control of Wanda Film, Wanda Film's market value was 31.732 billion yuan, only one-tenth of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, and its annual revenue was only a fraction.

From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand why Wang Jianlin has been selling Wanda Film shares since 2018.In difficult times, there is no choice but to preserve the most important asset of the business.

Wanda started out as a business management company, so naturally its most important assets are in business management.

Dalian Wanda Commercial Management is the owner of Wanda Plaza, and the operator of Wanda Plaza is Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhuhai Wanda"), whose listing has been repeatedly delayed.

Also at the end of 2023, the bet agreement between Zhuhai Wanda and its shareholders expires. If the former still fails to go public, the shareholders have the right to sell their shares back to Wang Jianlin.Country GardenOne step ahead, and issued an equity transaction announcement at the same time. Through this announcement, it can be roughly estimated that Zhuhai Wanda’s valuation is about 171.424 billion yuan. The previous prospectus revealed that Dalian Wanda held 69.99% of Zhuhai Wanda’s equity at this time.

Four months later, the bet redemption crisis was resolved through a new investment of 60 billion yuan, and Zhuhai Wanda was incorporated into a new entity, Dalian Xindami. At this time, Dalian Wanda's shareholding ratio was only 40%, and the valuation of the new entity Dalian Xindami was reduced to 100 billion yuan.

In just four months, the valuation of a quasi-listed company shrank from 171.4 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan, and Wanda's shareholding ratio in it also dropped from nearly 70% to only 40%.The wealth of the rich is worth hundreds of billions, and the shrinkage of its valuation is also worth tens of billions. Lao Wang feels a little worried and a little happy, but he can't tell outsiders.

According to previous media reports, the atmosphere at the signing ceremony for the 60 billion yuan fund, known as "Wanda's life-saving money," was more relaxed than expected, with a partner at PAG even asking the photographer to turn on the beauty filter when taking photos on the spot. However, Wang Jianlin did not show up at the signing ceremony.

In addition to the main business management assets, Wanda Group also holds scattered shares in A-share listed company Wanda Film. In addition, Wanda also has many marginal businesses including international trade, petrochemicals, thermal power, real estate, Wanda Financial Holdings, etc. Most of them are wholly owned by Wanda Group, so there is no way to know the valuation.

2. The selling behind the 140.8 billion yuan fortune

Although the business situation seems to be difficult, Wang Jianlin and his son Wang Sicong have returned to the top ten of the "New Fortune 500 Rich List" this year, with a shareholding value of 140.84 billion yuan. Combing the data of previous years, it can be found that their total wealth is the highest in the past three years.

New Fortune magazine published an article saying that the market value of Wang Sicong and his son's shareholdings this year mainly consists of two parts: the Dalian Wanda Commercial Management shares mentioned above, and the amount converted from the remaining Wanda Film shares.

As the most important asset of the Wang father and son, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's asset-liability situation has indeed improved year by year over the past three years.

Leopard Change combed through the annual reports from 2021 to 2023 and found that the net assets of its consolidated balance sheet were 131.171 billion yuan, 136.806 billion yuan and 140.35 billion yuan respectively in the three years, almost achieving the same level of liabilities while assets grew. This is not easy for a 100 billion empire. Among them, Wanda Plaza's "selling, selling, selling" contributed greatly.

In fact, some of the Wanda Plazas were actually sold. For example, Beijing Wanda Plaza on Da Wang Road was taken over by Xinhua Life and CICC Capital. In July 2024, Yantai Zhifu Wanda Plaza was also taken over byXinhua InsuranceIn addition to Xinhua Insurance, Dajia Insurance,Sunshine Insuranceetc. have also taken over Wanda Plaza.Insurance funds take over commercial entities basically to obtain long-term stable cash flow, so most of them are held for the long term.

The other part of the buying and selling behavior is more like "off-balance sheet" financingFor example, by the end of 2023, the main companies of the four Wanda Plazas located in Huzhou, Taicang, Guangzhou Luogang and Shanghai Jinshan will all be taken over by Zhonglian Fund after penetrating the equity relationship. Public information shows that this fund has long focused on innovative real estate financial business with REITs as the core. Wanda’s "sale" of its assets to Zhonglian is likely to have agreed on a time limit repurchase, that is, asset securitization operations.

Compared with Wanda Plaza, which he sold with great reluctance, Wang Jianlin can be described as resolute in clearing out his overseas assets.

Wanda’s overseas plans almost coincide with Wang Jianlin’s first ascension to the peak of the richest man, but the continued tight cash flow in recent years and the complex international investment environment have led to the continuous sale of overseas assets.

Earlier, some media reported that Wang Jianlin had cleared all his overseas real estate projects in 2020. For example, his three projects in London and Australia were sold in 2018, and the hotel apartment project in Chicago was sold at the end of 2020.

Starting from 2021, non-real estate projects will also be unable to escape the fate. Wanda first emptied out its U.S.AMC TheatersIn April 2024, Bloomberg reported that Wanda sold 91.8% of the shares of yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International for cash. In fact, this yacht business contributed a lot to the revenue of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management in 2023: the annual report showed that the revenue of other businesses increased by 10.68% that year, mainly due to the increase in yacht sales revenue.

3. What is Lao Wang’s next dream?

The most important purpose of the continuous asset sales is to solve the cash flow problem.

Even though the 60 billion yuan contract has been signed, it does not mean that Wanda's crisis has been resolved. In just a few months, the equity of the new company Dalian Xindameng was frozen three times. It is speculated that the three equity freezes were related to the debt dispute of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management.

Wang Jianlin is obviously mentally prepared for the situation Wanda is facing. At Wanda's annual work conference in January this year, he stated that one of the tasks in 2024 is to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Although the four bonds with Dalian Wanda as the main body are currently trading normally and the AAA ratings of the bonds and the main body are maintained, at the end of June this year, China Chengxin issued an announcement stating that it was necessary to delay the disclosure of Dalian Wanda’s 2024 follow-up rating report because "the company has major matters that may affect its credit level and need further understanding."

From a business perspective, as of April 2024, Zhuhai Wanda manages a total of 496 large shopping malls, and how many of them belong to Wanda Group has not yet been disclosed. A reference data is that at the end of 2022, of the 472 commercial entities operated by Zhuhai Wanda, about 60% belong to Wanda Group, and the remaining 40% come from third-party management agencies.

What is certain is that since 2023, the pace of business development of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has slowed down significantly. Previously, it could basically expand the business of about 50 commercial entities each year, but in 2023 it was only 24.

However, on the other hand,The recovery of the hotel and cultural tourism business seems to have brought new hope to WandaRecently, Wanda’s official publicity channels have almost all been releasing content related to culture, tourism and hotels.

In 2023,Wanda Hotel DevelopmentThe annual report shows that its total revenue increased by 20.36% year-on-year. Guandian.com information shows that in the first half of 2024, Wanda Hotels & Resorts successfully opened 19 new hotels, including 7 high-star hotels and 12 mid-to-high-end hotels. At the same time, Wanda Hotels & Resorts signed a total of 53 entrusted management hotel projects, including 23 high-star hotels and 30 mid-to-high-end hotels.

If we count the appearances of Wang Jianlin and Wang Sicong in the past, most of them are related to the cultural tourism industry. For example, in April this year, Wang Jianlin was met by netizens in Dali. At that time, the 60 billion yuan investment had just been signed and was seen by the outside world as a turning point in the gambling storm. In fact, as early as a month ago, the Dali government established contact with Wanda and went to Beijing for inspection. At that time, Wang Jianlin expressed the hope to reach cooperation with Dali on projects such as jointly building a national tourist resort.

However, can the hotel business be expected to be so high? From the financial data, Wanda Hotel Management achieved a revenue of 986 million yuan in 2023, which is almost a fraction of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management. In terms of revenue share, although the contribution of hotel operations to Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's revenue increased in 2023, it was still only 2.92%.

It goes without saying how difficult it is to revive the cultural and tourism industry that was strategically abandoned back then.After all, even the brothers who took over back then are now struggling in the quagmire.But in addition to finding money and selling assets, people always need some hope for the future to keep going, even the rich.