The strong man Wang Jianlin broke his wrist again
There are only more than 20 days left before the 38 billion gambling limit, and Wang Jianlin's core asset and former dream, Wanda Movie, is about to change its name and surname.
At noon on December 6, Wanda Film announced that Wang Jianlin, the actual controller of the company, intends to transfer his total 51% stake in Beijing Wanda Investment to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd. The few words in the announcement quickly shocked everyone, "If the above matters are finally implemented, it will lead to a change of control of the company." ”
You must know that Wanda Film has had 3 equity transfers before, although the price is lower and lower each time, Lao Wang has always sat firmly in the position of the actual controller. And this time, Wang Jianlin simply went out in one go, and his departure posture seemed hasty and decisive.
But the "clearance" did not come without warning. Five years ago, Zeng Maojun, then president of Wanda Film, single-handedly promoted the merger and reorganization of Wanda Film and Wanda Film, and confidently said that he would make the industry bigger. But unfortunately, since 2020, the film and television industry has suffered setbacks one after another, Wanda Films has invested heavily in works with few returns, and the operation of offline theaters has repeatedly lost money.
And the meat-cutting Wanda movie is only a part, and Lao Wang's asset sale did not stop there. "City Boundary" learned that "recently, a large insurance company is about to acquire Shanghai Jinshan Wanda Plaza, the investor has already visited the site, and has now gone through the negotiation period, and another Shanghai Maqiao Wanda Plaza is also in the transfer shelf, and the investor is still picking." Prior to this, Wanda had sold 5 Wanda Plazas in succession this year.
Recently, it was also reported that Wanda Commercial Management revealed in the process of communicating with investors that Wanda Group plans to sell its Wanda Plaza in first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity, and is currently negotiating with insurance institutions. The above-mentioned insider told "City Boundary" that "one of the criteria for the management to choose is that they don't want the plaza with more competing products around, for example, Shanghai picks the square with the least surrounding competing products."
Looking at the entire industry, this kind of courage of a strong man breaking his wrist and falling with a knife in his hand, few bigwigs can really do it. Seven years ago, the "merger of the century" led by him was regarded as a textbook-level case by many peers, which allowed Lao Wang to survive the catastrophe. But now, thinking about the 38 billion yuan gambling that is about to expire, many people can't help but sweat for Lao Wang.
The sale of Wanda Films and the transfer of the core Wanda Plaza are not the end, and a bigger change is still waiting for him.
The days of "dreaming" are over
At the end of 2016, The Hollywood Reporter published the first cover story in history featuring a Chinese. The story begins with something like this: Wang Jianlin, chairman of China's real estate giant Wanda Group, rarely goes to the cinema to watch movies.
As soon as the report came out, Hollywood practitioners were busy surprised that this Chinese bigwig, who doesn't watch movies much, went to Hollywood to harvest frantically.
Not counting the investment in a single film, in the past year or two, Wang Jianlin has spent about 7 billion US dollars, including the acquisition of AMC, the second largest cinema chain in the United States, the acquisition of Legendary Pictures for no more than 3.5 billion US dollars, and the acquisition of Dick Clark Productions, one of the live TV manufacturers, for 1 billion US dollars, and the establishment of Oriental Film Studio in Qingdao for 8.2 billion yuan is not counted.
"I have one goal when I enter an industry, either to be the first in China or the first in the world. Wang Jianlin showed a grand movie dream from the beginning. In his past planning, the film industry is his cultural weapon to target the world.
In those years, Wanda quickly won the first place in the global theater market share by thunderous means. In fact, in the Chinese market, since 2009, Wanda's box office and market share have surpassed many strong players such as Chinese movie stars Meimei and Shanghai Lianhe, and it has been firmly in the top spot, which has continued to this day.
At that time, Wang Jianlin was ambitious, "My goal was to buy Hollywood companies and bring their technology and capabilities to China. He also said that as long as the target company is suitable, there is no upper limit on the amount of the acquisition offered.
Wang Jianlin does have the confidence to say this, and from 2015 to 2016, he was the richest man in China on the Hurun Report, with a net worth of nearly 220 billion yuan. Since then, the film and television market has also been soaring, and Wanda's cultural industry empire has taken over the whole industrial chain layout of film and television production, distribution, and cinema operation in one go.
Looking back, Wang Jianlin's investment in movies at that time was indeed a big step ahead of other film and television companies. "Wanda invested a lot of money to introduce industries, hoping to create a film and television industry chain, which is very advanced. A veteran producer in the film and television industry said.
But after that, the development of the film sector did not completely satisfy Wang Jianlin. After 2019, with the divestment of Legendary Pictures and the liquidation of AMC by Wanda, the drawbacks caused by mergers and acquisitions have gradually emerged, and Wanda Films has begun to gradually decline.
In the first half of 2022, Wanda Film's loss reached 581 million yuan, and before that, Wanda Film had just turned a profit in 2021 after experiencing a loss in 2020. But after only a year, the situation took a turn for the worse.
After that, in a month in July 2022, Wanda Film experienced frequent high-level changes. Zeng Maojun, chairman and president of Wanda Film, who had joined Wanda for nearly 10 years, left suddenly, and Zhang Lin, then president of Wanda Commercial Management Group, single-handedly provoked the two sectors of business management and culture, replacing Zeng Maojun to take over the film business.
At that time, a Wanda insider revealed to the "City Boundary" that Zeng Maojun was still working during the day on the 4th, and was called to the office in the afternoon, and his departure was very sudden, "I felt that all the executives rushed to Beijing for a meeting overnight."
But the employee also said that it may be an inevitability. "Wanda's assessment of the film and television industry also refers to the real estate set, which is very unscientific, because the film and television industry cannot ensure that the revenue is rising, and the uncertainty of this industry is too strong", under pressure, someone must take the blame for the poor performance.
For this kind of assessment pressure, the staff of the cinema are also trembling. A former employee of Wanda Cinema told "City Boundary" that "Wanda Cinema will have SPP (SPP = GMV of Sold Products/Number of Moviegoers, that is, the average sales amount of sold goods distributed to each audience) every day, but this task is generally not completed.
Not only that, Wanda Film has also brought in the green light management system that was once prevalent in the real estate business. "A project is divided into green, yellow and red, green can be easily clicked, don't be so rushed, yellow is about to catch up with the schedule, and the red light is waiting to go to the region to report on the work. The above-mentioned employee said that this management method has also caused dissatisfaction among many internal employees.
"Movies are a thing that needs to be maintained for a long time, and it is not possible to produce results by relying on strong execution and strong KPIs, and many people are dissatisfied with the excessively high KPIs, and then they have left one after another. "Not only the staff, but also the middle and senior management of Wanda Film have also changed greatly in the past few years.
As of today, the composition of Wanda's film crew is very different from that of 2015. Up to now, the board of directors of Wanda Film is composed of Zhang Lin, Wang Huiwu, Yin Xiangjin, Chen Hongtao, Lu Suiqi, and Qi Huaijin. At that time, Wang Jianlin remained by his side with many of his right-hand men, and many Wanda ministers followed.
In 2015, Wanda Film successfully landed on the A-share market as the first stock of China's cinema chain, with a maximum market value of nearly 150 billion yuan, and now although it is still the position of "film and television brother", the latest market value is only 23 billion yuan.
▲ (Wanda Film's stock price trend since its listing in January 2015.) Source/Straight Flush)
When he first decided to enter the film industry in 2005, Wang Jianlin showed a rare literary side, and he once admitted in an interview that film was his dream: "I was opposed by 99% of the shareholders, who thought that these investments would not pay off, but I decided to continue chasing my dream." ”
Now, the days of dreaming are over.
Old friends strike again
Fortunately, in the last year of the VAM agreement, Wang Jianlin caught up with the strong recovery of the film industry, and Wanda Film's operating data exceeded expectations, becoming one of the few chips that Wang Jianlin could come out of, and was repeatedly placed on the shelves.
In July this year, Wang Jianlin transferred his 49% stake in Wanda Investment to Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television, and this time, Wang Jianlin transferred the remaining 51% to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Company.
Equity information shows that after the completion of the transaction, Wang Jianlin will no longer control Wanda Film, but he still indirectly holds 10.2% of Wanda Film's equity through the concerted actor "Shenxian Rongzhi Xingye Management Consulting Center".
Losing control of Wanda Films, Wang Jianlin can get a key "life money". According to the latest total market value of 27.133 billion yuan estimated by Wanda Film on December 6, since Wanda Investment holds 20% of the equity of Wanda Film, this part of the equity is worth about 5.426 billion yuan. From this point of view, Wang Jianlin transferred 51% of the equity of Wanda Investment, with a market value of about 2.667 billion yuan.
It is Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Company, a subsidiary of Shanghai Ruyi, and the company that previously took over 49% of Wanda Investment's equity is Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd. However, the actual controller behind the two companies is Ke Liming, and Ke Liming is the chairman of China Ruyi.
This time, Shanghai Confucianism has the confidence to "swallow the elephant" behind taking over Wanda Films, and it is inseparable from Tencent's support. Chinese Confucianism, once renamed from Hengteng Network, is an important chess piece cast by Xu Jiayin and Tencent in the film and television industry, and its Confucian Pictures has made great achievements in the film and television industry, and has participated in the investment and production of many popular movies, such as "Langya Bang", "No War in Peking" and other well-known film and television dramas, and "Hello, Li Huanying", "Send You a Little Red Flower" and so on.
According to the "City Boundary", in June 2021, Evergrande, which was facing many difficulties, had to sell its high-quality assets one after another, and its matchmaker sold all its high-quality assets such as China Ruyi (then called Hengteng Network) to Tencent. With the gradual liquidation of Evergrande, the name of Tencent's largest shareholder has been confirmed, and in 2022, HengTen Network officially changed its name to China Ruyi.
At present, Tencent indirectly holds a total of 25.45% of the shares of China Ruyi, making it its largest shareholder. For Chinese Confucianism and even Tencent, Wanda Films is an important resource. From the perspective of the national market, Wanda Film has a great say in theaters, and as of the end of June 2023, Wanda Film has a 16.8% market share in theaters.
For Tencent, which has a multi-point layout in the film and television industry, it has earlier achieved a preliminary layout of the offline cinema market by investing in Bona Films. The indirect acquisition of Wanda Film's equity will undoubtedly help to increase its influence in the offline cinema market.
In a few days, Wanda Films may change hands. In the future, how the new partners will use their respective content IP and cinema resources for in-depth cooperation will be a great highlight, and Ruyi will also further strengthen the management of Wanda. And the prelude to change may have begun.
After verification by the "city boundary", an internal employee of Wanda Film revealed, "Chen Hongtao, CEO of Wanda Film, is expected to leave in the near future. And Chen Hongtao is Wanda's veteran for many years, and he has followed Wang Jianlin for 23 years. It is foreseeable that after his departure, a personnel reshuffle is inevitable.
The acquisition of this "snake swallowing elephant" has sent a deep signal: one is a real estate tycoon who grasps the backbone of China's economy, and the other is an Internet giant who affects the fate of a generation of Chinese people.
The listing VAM limit is only 24 days
While Wang Jianlin was moving his assets and equity, Wanda's employees, partners, shareholders and investors were also paying close attention to the company's dynamics. Wanda Group, which is in trouble at home and abroad, has begun to show more ups and downs.
Internally, Wanda Commercial Management's internal employees revealed to "City Boundary" that since the end of November, Wanda Commercial Management has started a round of fierce layoffs, "the layoff rate is about 10%, but the top management has basically not moved."
Externally, since the end of November, the news about the postponement of Wanda Commercial Management's listing has been spreading. According to reports, Wanda Commercial Management is soliciting opinions from investors, planning to postpone the listing time to 2026 at the latest, and postpone the repayment of 30 billion yuan of equity repurchases, etc., but there is no new progress in the negotiation results between Wanda and investors.
Earlier, Wang Jianlin had signed a VAM agreement with investors, and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management must complete the listing by the end of 2023 at the latest, otherwise Wanda will not only have to redeem 30 billion, but also pay 12% interest.
However, how could Lao Wang have thought that the road to listing would be so difficult. Since calling out for listing in Hong Kong in 2018, this year is the fifth and last year for Wanda to hit the Hong Kong stock IPO. In order to go public, Lao Wang has been wandering in front of the door of Hong Kong stocks for 5 years.
However, the listing of Wanda Commercial Management has been full of twists and turns, and during the period, it has also aroused doubts from regulators due to its own business conditions. In the first half of the year, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange raised a number of questions about the materials submitted by Wanda, one of which was that the capital transactions between Zhuhai Wanda and Dalian Wanda were unknown, and it pointed out that Wanda was paying large dividends on the one hand, but on the other hand, it was a contradictory practice of huge financing.
How to deal with the gambling agreement of more than 300 small targets, Wang Jianlin may face a test of life and death again. A good sign is that in less than two weeks, Wanda Commercial Management's $600 million bond extension plan has been approved by bondholders on November 30, with a 99.3% support ratio among investors.
In addition to selling the equity of Wanda Film, Wang Jianlin has sold 5 Wanda Plazas in succession this year to "solve difficulties". According to incomplete statistics from the media, these commercial assets sold include projects or company equity in Shanghai Zhoupu Wanda Plaza, Guangxi Hepu Wanda Plaza, Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Xining Haihu Wanda Plaza, Jiangmen Taishan Wanda Plaza, and Wuhan Huada Jiuhao Innovation Investment Partnership.
Now, Sicong is no longer afraid of the air, and has become much more restrained. To many people's surprise, Sicong's last appearance was at a project signing ceremony in Tai'an, Shandong.
"After years of business war, wealth has always been in vain. This is a poem written by Wang Jianlin many years ago. But now, Wang Jianlin has led Wanda through 35 years of ups and downs, but when he turns around and looks back, the metaphor of "everything is empty" seems to be true.
Author | amuse
Edit | Sun Chunfang
Operations | Liu Shan