The huge bet is about to expire, and Wang Jianlin lost Wanda Movies
Author: Chen Yan
Edited by Gale
Wang Jianlin still didn't keep Wanda Movies.
On December 6, Wanda Film was abruptly suspended, and the reason given was to plan a change of control. Immediately afterwards, Wanda Film announced that Mr. Wang Jianlin, the actual controller of the company, intends to transfer 51% of the shares of Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. held by him to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd.
Wanda Film released an announcement
The most noteworthy point of this transaction is that after completion, Wang Jianlin will completely lose control of Wanda Films. Back then, Wanda Films could be regarded as carrying Wang Jianlin's dream of Oriental Hollywood, and this year it happened to catch up with the recovery of the film industry.
After all, since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has done the two most frequent things are selling equity and looking for money.
According to reports, in 2023, Wanda Commercial Management will face a concentrated maturity of 15.4 billion yuan of domestic public bonds and 400 million US dollars of bonds, totaling about 18.2 billion yuan of public bonds, and it is not easy to complete the payment on time. The listing VAM deadline at the end of this year is approaching, and the thunder planted a few years ago may cause 40 billion cash flow pressure on Wanda, and Wang Jianlin's steps to find money are also bigger.
For Wanda and Wang Jianlin, this moment can be said to be a critical moment.
Wang Jianlin sells his children for money, and Wanda Movies changes his surname to "Ma"
The sale of Wanda Films is not without warning. Since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has sold off his stake in Wanda Film several times.
As early as July 11, Wanda Film announced that its controlling shareholder, Wanda Investment, intends to sell its 180 million shares of the company, that is, 8.26% of the company's total share capital, to Lu Lili, the "boss" of Oriental Wealth, by way of agreement transfer, and the price of this share transfer is 2.173 billion yuan.
Only a week later, Wanda Film announced again that Beijing Wanda Investment intends to transfer 177 million shares of Wanda Film's unrestricted tradable shares held by it to Shenxian Rongzhi, a person acting in concert, at a transfer price of 2.331 billion, accounting for 8.14% of Wanda Film's total share capital.
On July 23, Wanda Film issued an announcement announcing that Shanghai Ruyi would acquire 49% of the shares of Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. held by the former at a cost of 2.262 billion yuan. Upon completion of the transaction, Shanghai Ruyi will indirectly hold 213 million shares of Wanda Film through Wanda Investment, accounting for 9.8% of the total share capital.
The price of 2.262 billion yuan was exchanged for 9.8% of Wanda Film's shares, which was only about 10 yuan per share, which was significantly lower than the price of more than 13 yuan per share of Wanda Film at that time, which could be regarded as a cheap sale. But there is probably no way, according to reports, the more than 2 billion yuan that Wanda got in exchange was used to pay a debt of $400 million.
After the completion of the 51% equity transfer, Shanghai Ruyi will fully hold Wanda Investment, and through the company, indirectly hold 20% of the equity of Wanda Film, becoming the new controller of Wanda Film.
Like the previous times, Wang Jianlin has now completely given up control of Wanda Films, or in exchange for money. According to the market value of 27.133 billion yuan before the suspension of Wanda Film, it is estimated that since Wanda Investment holds 20% of the equity of Wanda Film, the value of this part of the equity is about 5.4 billion yuan, so Wang Jianlin will get more than 2 billion yuan.
Wang Jianlin
It can be seen that since July this year, Wang Jianlin has cashed out more than 9 billion yuan just by relying on Wanda Films.
It is worth noting that Shanghai Ruyi is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Ruyi, and the largest shareholder standing behind China Ruyi is Tencent.
In July this year, Shanghai Ruyi had just raised HK$4 billion before "rescuing" Wanda, of which HK$3.6 billion was used for the development and expansion of the group's film and game business, and HK$400 million was used for the group's general working capital. Subsequently, Tencent subscribed for 500 million shares through Water Lily, corresponding to 800 million Hong Kong dollars. Now Shanghai Ruyi has the confidence to "snake swallowing elephant" to take over Wanda Film, and Tencent has always supported it.
To a certain extent, Tencent can be regarded as indirectly taking over Wanda Films, and Ma Huateng pulled Wang Jianlin at a critical moment. However, the price is that from then on, Wanda Films changed from Wang Jianlin's "Wang" to Ma Huateng's "Ma".
Recklessly, everything that could be sold was sold
Looking back, Wanda Movies is already a relatively high-quality asset in Wang Jianlin's hands.
Judging from the performance of the capital market, although the share price of Wanda Film is not as high as the peak time, the total market value is still as high as 27.1 billion yuan. According to the financial report, Wanda's film revenue in the first three quarters of this year was about 11.347 billion yuan, an increase of 46.98% year-on-year, the net profit was about 1.114 billion yuan, and the operating cash flow was about 3.796 billion yuan.
Selling the "cash cow" at such a cost can also see from the side how big Wanda's current crisis is.
In fact, not only Wanda Films, since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin can be said to be "addicted" to selling assets. From the equity of the film company to Wanda Plaza, financial licenses, Infront Sports... Whatever could be put on the shelves, they were put out and sold.
Take Wanda Plaza as an example, since the beginning of this year, Wanda has sold a number of Wanda Plazas. In June, Wanda sold Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Xining Haihu Wanda Plaza, and Jiangmen Taishan Wanda Plaza to Everybody Life, with an estimated overall transaction price of between 1 billion and 1.5 billion yuan.
At the end of September, Wanda transferred its Guangxi Beihai Hepu Wanda Plaza to Hepu Wanghe Real Estate, a local real estate company in Beihai, and in October, the equity relationship of Shanghai Wanda Plaza Real Estate Co., Ltd. changed, and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management officially withdrew, and the receiver was Dajia Insurance.
This is not the end, according to the surging news report, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management recently communicated with investors that Wanda Group is considering selling Wanda Plaza in some first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity, and is currently negotiating with insurance institutions. However, it remains to be seen how it will progress.
Wanda's various measures this year have a sense of "tearing down the east wall and making up the west wall", but for Wang Jianlin, there is not so much control at the moment.
The rain is coming, and there are only 23 days left in the gambling limit
Behind Wang Jianlin's "selling, selling, selling", the biggest pressure still comes from the hot potato of the VAM agreement. To make matters worse, there are not many days left before the VAM expires.
Two years earlier, Wanda signed VAM agreements with Tencent, Ant, CITIC and other investors, raising 38 billion yuan at a pre-IPO price of 25 yuan per share, of which Singapore PAG alone invested 18 billion yuan. They demanded that Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management complete the listing by the end of 2023 at the latest, otherwise Wanda would need to buy back the above-mentioned strategic investment shares and pay the corresponding interest.
In other words, if Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is not successful in listing at the end of the year, the company will have to pay more than 40 billion yuan to investors, which is basically a fatal blow to Wanda, which is already in cash flow distress.
Screenshot of Wanda Commercial Management's official website
However, if you want to complete the listing before the end of the year, it is also difficult at present. In recent years, in order for Wanda Commercial Management to be listed, Wang Jianlin has been running around and doing everything he can. But contrary to expectations, as of now, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has submitted the form to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 4 times, and the first 3 times have failed. Now the market conditions are not improving, and there are more than 20 days left, and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management may not even be able to complete the listing process.
This seems to be a joke played by fate, when Wang Jianlin impulsively delisted from Hong Kong stocks, thinking that he could return to A-shares to get a higher valuation, but just hit the muzzle of tightening regulations. When he wanted to return to the Hong Kong stock market, he encountered the weak performance of the Hong Kong stock market, and it was difficult to re-list. And this repeatedly postponed IPO plan also drove Wang Jianlin to a dead end.
Some time ago, news came out that Wang Jianlin was urgently contacting investors, hoping to postpone the listing to 2026 at the longest. However, this proposal has not been widely accepted by investors, and some investors believe that the time delay is too long, it is impossible to predict the future situation, and the three-year time period is too variable.
At the moment of crisis, for Wang Jianlin, the next small goal may be to let Wanda live first.