At the critical moment, Wang Jianlin once again sold off his core assets. On December 6, Wanda Film announced that the company’s actual controller Wang Jianlin planned to transfer his 51% stake in the company’s controlling shareholder Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd.The announcement shows that if the above matters are finally implemented, it will lead to a change in the company's control. This means that after the transfer is completed, Wang Jianlin will lose the controlling stake in Wanda Film.


Text | Compiled by Li Yihui | Deep Sea

"Film is an industry with no ceiling." Wang Jianlin was once very optimistic about the film and television industry and made large investments. As early as 2002, Wanda entered the theatrical field for the first time. In 2013, when the Oriental Film City started construction, Wanda began to advance upstream of the film industry. Then to the acquisition of 100% equity of the American AMC company, from domestic to overseas, from theaters to manufacturing, Wang Jianlin hopes to occupy 20% of the global film market by 2020.

Looking back now, Wang Jianlin's "small goal" has long since disappeared like smoke. In 2017, in order to solve the liquidity crisis, Wanda sold an asset package of more than 40 billion yuan to Sunac, and Qingdao's cultural tourism project Oriental Movie Metropolis was prominently included. Since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has sold shares in Wanda Film several times in order to cope with the debt repayment pressure of Wanda Commercial Management.

It’s the same familiar fire sale, but this time, Wanda’s embarrassing situation shows no signs of easing. The latest news shows that Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management still has no IPO timetable, and Wanda Group plans to sell its Wanda Plazas in first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity.

Faced with the "hard nut to crack" of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's listing, Wang Jianlin had to cut off his strength once again.

It is worth noting that recently, as the chairman of Beijing Huanju Commercial Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing Huanju"), Wang Sicong met with the leaders of the Tai'an Municipal Party Committee and signed a contract with the Tai'an Municipal Government on a 3.7 billion cultural tourism project. During the meeting, Wang Sicong was dressed in casual clothes with messy hair. Compared with the secretary of the Tai'an Municipal Party Committee in formal attire sitting opposite him, he looked particularly out of place.


“Brothers fight tigers, and father and son fight in the battle.” Some market participants believe that when Wanda was facing financial pressure, Wang Sicong stepped forward to sign cultural and tourism projects, which was also an objective support for Wang Jianlin.Although Wanda refutes rumors that there is no succession plan, Wang Sicong's cultural tourism projects have received a lot of support from Wanda, and Wang Sicong should be more involved in related projects in the future. Wearing casual clothes to attend the signing ceremony was Wang Sicong's last act of stubbornness.

01. "Several Love" Wanda Movies

Ruyi Pictures, which had previously helped Wang Jianlin "rescue" Wanda's movie cash, showed up again.

According to Wanda Film’s announcement on December 6, the company’s indirect controlling shareholder Beijing Wanda Cultural Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Wanda Culture”) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Beijing Hengrun Enterprise Management Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Beijing Hengrun”), and the company’s actual controller Wang Jianlin plan to transfer their combined 51% stake in the company’s controlling shareholder Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Wanda Investment”) to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Ruyi”).

According to the third quarter report, the top four shareholders of Wanda Film are Wanda Investment, Shenxian Rongzhi Industrial Management Consulting Center (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Shenxian Rongzhi"), Lu Lili and Hangzhou Zhenxi Investment Management Co., Ltd. (a company of Alibaba), with shareholding ratios of 20%, 10.21%, 8.26% and 6.19% respectively.

Among them, Shenxian Rongzhi is also a subsidiary of Wanda, is actually controlled by Wanda Culture, and constitutes a concerted party with Wanda Investment.

Tianyancha shows that Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ruyi Film and Television") currently holds 49% of Wanda Investment's shares, and the remaining 51% is jointly held by Wanda Culture, Beijing Hengrun and Wang Jianlin.

It is worth mentioning that the above-mentioned Ruyi Film and Television holds 49% of the shares of Wanda Investment. It entered into a share transfer agreement with Wanda Culture on July 23 this year and obtained it for a consideration of 2.262 billion yuan.

Both Ruyi Film and Television and Shanghai Ruyi are 99% owned by Ke Liming. According to media reports, Ke Liming, who was born in the 1980s, worked in the financial industry, then started his own business and joined the film and television industry, taking over Ruyi Pictures founded by his brother.

In the cold winter of film and television in recent years, "Confucianism" has bucked the trend and expanded. Lighthouse data shows that Confucianism has produced a total of 43 works in recent years, with a total box office of 17.677 billion yuan, and a total box office of 7.434 billion yuan.

Wanda Film’s latest announcement shows that Wanda’s three shareholders plan to transfer the remaining 51% of Wanda Investment shares to Shanghai Ruyi. The announcement also stated that if the above matters are finally implemented, it will lead to a change in the company's control.

This means that if the transfer is completed, Ke Liming will actually control Wanda Investment. After losing Wanda's investment, Wang Jianlin will only hold 10.21% of Wanda Film's shares through Shenxian Rongzhi.

Since this year, Wanda Film’s equity has changed several times. On July 17, Wanda Investment and Shenxian Rongzhi signed a share transfer agreement, and planned to transfer 8.14% of Wanda Film's shares to Shenxian Rongzhi for a consideration of 2.336 billion yuan. The transferee will use the shares to bear the performance commitment compensation obligations of Wanda Film's acquisition of Wanda Film and Television in 2019.

Lu Lili, currently the third largest shareholder of Wanda Film, entered the company earlier.

On July 11, Wanda Investment signed a share transfer agreement with Lu Lili, transferring 180 million Wanda Film shares held by it to the other party at a transfer price of 12.07 yuan per share, totaling approximately 2.17 billion yuan. Lu Lili is well known to the outside world as the wife of the actual controller of Oriental Fortune.

In addition to equity transactions, Wang Jianlin also reduced his holdings in Wanda Film through the secondary market this year.

In March this year, Wanda Culture reduced its holdings of approximately 43.565 million shares of Wanda Film through block transactions, with a total reduction of approximately 580 million yuan. The reason for the reduction is to repay part of the stock pledge loan and reduce the pledge risk.

Since May, Wanda Investment has reduced its holdings of approximately 21.71 million shares of Wanda Film through centralized bidding transactions, cashing out approximately 272 million yuan. It has also reduced its holdings of approximately 34.88 million shares of Wanda Film through block transactions, and has cashed out approximately 400 million yuan. At that time, the reason given by the company for reducing its holdings was shareholders' own capital needs.

Some market participants pointed out that within the entire Wanda system, Wanda Films can be regarded as one of the high-quality targets. Especially now that the film market is accelerating its recovery, Wanda Films' profitability is also gradually recovering. But in order to raise funds, Wang Jianlin had no choice but to give up his love.

02. Continue to sell assets to realize cash

The plan to sell a controlling stake in Wanda Film shows Wang Jianlin’s firm attitude towards selling assets, but this is not all the projects Wanda has sold this year.

Radar Finance found that since the beginning of this year, Wanda has been “downsizing” from personnel optimization to asset disposal.In May of this year, it was revealed that Wanda would “lay off large-scale layoffs, involving more than 30%”.According to Jiemian News, the individual departments involved are mainly business management and real estate groups, including operations, cost, design and other positions.

Soon Wanda issued a statement saying that the news online that Wanda was laying off large-scale employees was untrue. However, the company also revealed to the media that it was indeed optimizing, involving the compression of individual departments, but there were no large-scale layoffs, and some departments were still increasing staff.

At the same time as personnel adjustments were made, Bloomberg announced on May 24 this year that Wanda Group was considering evaluating the sale of 20 shopping malls in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places. Each project was seeking a valuation of about 700 million to 800 million yuan, with the specific price depending on the location and business.

However, on May 25, Wanda Group once again issued a statement saying that the online report that "20 Wanda Plazas were sold for 16 billion yuan" was false.

However, Wanda’s quick recovery of funds from asset sales is not groundless. According to Guan Guan New Media, Dalian Wanda Business Management Group has established four enterprise management companies this year, one of which is Zhuhai Wensheng Enterprise Management Co., Ltd.

Shortly after its establishment, Zhuhai Wensheng successively acquired project companies for Xining Wanda Plaza in Qinghai, Taishan Wanda Plaza in Jiangmen, Guangdong, and Songjiang Wanda Plaza in Shanghai. After the three projects were packaged and completed, they were divested to JiaJia Insurance at the end of May.

Tianyancha shows that on May 31, the shareholders of Zhuhai Wensheng were changed from Dalian Wanda Commercial Management to Shanghai Jiashang Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Suzhou Lianjia No. 1 Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership).

A breakdown of the shareholding shows that Shanghai Jiashang is 100% owned by DaJia Life Insurance, and Lianjia One's shareholders include DaJia Investment Holdings.

In addition to the above-mentioned commercial assets, Wanda has also put the third-party payment licenses of its Kuaiqian Company and Infront Sports Media Company on the shelves.

According to market news, Wanda Group plans to sell the third-party payment license of its Kuaiqian company for about 1 billion yuan. Potential buyers include companies such as ByteDance. In response to this, Douyin related people responded to the media that it is only preliminary contact at present.

According to a report from the Associated Press, in June Wanda Real Estate transferred 85.72% of its shares in Wuhan Huadajiu Hao Innovation Investment Partnership to China Huarong Asset Management Co., Ltd.

Wuhan Huadajiuhao was established in March this year, with Wanda Real Estate holding 99.6% of the shares and Huarong Capital Management Co., Ltd. holding 0.369%. After the transfer is completed, Wuhan Huadajiuhao will be held by China Huarong Asset Management with 86.04% stake, Wanda Real Estate with 13.91% stake, and Huarong Capital Management with 0.05% stake.

Wuhan Huadajiuhao holds equity in Wuhan Wanda East Lake Real Estate, whose main projects include Han Street Wanda Plaza and Wuhan Wanda Showground in Wuhan Central Cultural District. However, the remaining 30% equity of Wuhan Hanjie Wanda Plaza was sold to SKP in March this year.

At the end of September, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management transferred 100% of the equity of Shanghai Wanda Plaza Real Estate Co., Ltd., and the takeover party also insured everyone.

Tianyancha shows that on September 26, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management withdrew from Shanghai Wanda Plaza Real Estate Co., Ltd., and the new shareholders were Shanghai Jiasheng Management Consulting Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Wuhu Puyu Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership). After the equity penetration, Shanghai Jia Sheng is still behind DaJia Life Insurance.

At almost the same time, Wanda transferred its Hepu Wanda Plaza in Beihai, Guangxi, which will open in early 2022, to Hepu Wanghe Real Estate, a local real estate company in Beihai.

According to industrial and commercial change records, on September 28, "Hepu Wanda Plaza Commercial Management Co., Ltd." was renamed "Hepu Shuoguoxuan Commercial Management Co., Ltd." and the major shareholder was also changed from "Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd." to "Hepu Wanghe Real Estate Co., Ltd."

Currently, Wanda is still planning to sell more assets. On December 6, according to The Paper, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management disclosed in the process of communicating with investors that Wanda Group plans to sell its Wanda Plazas located in first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity, and is currently negotiating with insurance institutions.

03.There are still listing problems to be solved

Wanda’s thirst for funds is partly due to Wanda’s own debt pressure.

At the end of November, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management announced that the adjusted repayment plan for a US$600 million bond due in January 2024 was voted by investors.

The reason for the extension is that the current real estate industry continues to be sluggish, interest rates in overseas capital markets continue to rise, the company faces certain difficulties in refinancing, and there is some uncertainty in the approval of the listing of subsidiary Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management before the end of the year.

In addition, as of the end of June 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's monetary funds were 16.02 billion yuan, and the scale of short-term borrowings and non-current liabilities due within one year was 74.55 billion yuan, which is far behind the monetary funds. The balance of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period was 14.692 billion yuan, covering only half of the 29.257 billion yuan of interest-bearing liabilities due within one year.

On the other hand, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's listing is progressing slowly, and Wang Jianlin has to prepare for the worst possible scenario.

Dalian Wanda Commercial Management stated in its application materials submitted to the China Securities Regulatory Commission in March that:If Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management cannot be successfully listed by the end of 2023, the issuer will need to pay approximately 30 billion yuan in equity repurchase payments to pre-listing investors.

This potentially huge repurchase stems from the previously signed gambling agreement.

S&P pointed out in a report in July that if Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management fails to be listed before the end of 2023 and negotiations with pre-IPO round investors fail to achieve satisfactory results for all parties, Wanda Commercial Management Group and Dalian Wanda Group may need to buy back all pre-IPO round stocks before the first quarter of 2024 and compensate investors with a total investment return of more than 40 billion yuan.

However, information shows that as the deadline for the bet approaches, Wanda’s communication with investors has yet to produce results. An investor from Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management said that he disagreed with Wanda’s plan to postpone the repayment and investment funds.

Under this situation, Wanda hopes to introduce new investors to alleviate its difficulties and has begun to contact potential investors. However, the above-mentioned investors believe that “it should be a little difficult now.”

There are more than 20 days left before the end of the year. Judging from the sale of Wanda Film shares, Wang Jianlin is still actively preparing in many ways and making final efforts.