Wanda Group is on the hot search again, and this time the equity is frozen!
According to Tianyancha, recently, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Company received another equity freezing information, with an amount of up to 16.205 billion yuan.
Not long ago, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management had received an equity freeze information, with an equity amount of about 5.072 billion shares.
However, a person familiar with the matter revealed that after the incident, Wanda Group has reached a settlement with the bank on the dispute, and the frozen equity is expected to be unfrozen next week.
Fortunately, it was just a false alarm.
It seems that 2024 will not be a good year for Wanda Group.
Assets continue to be sold, and equity is also transferred, some say this is a means for Wanda to quickly gather funds, others say that this is a sign of Wanda's transformation......
Although the intentions of Wanda Group are unknown, people will inevitably wonder: Will Wanda regain its former glory in the future?
Dalian Xigang Residential Development Co., Ltd. is the predecessor of Wanda Group, which was founded in 1988.
In just one year since its establishment, the company has earned its first pot of gold with the renovation of the old city of Dalian, and Wang Jianlin has also found a new profit model: the renovation of the old city.
In the early 90s, Wanda Group had become a leader in the real estate industry. The annual sales volume of houses has accounted for more than 20% of the total real estate in Dalian.
Therefore, Wanda Group has always been regarded as the leading real estate enterprise in Dalian.
Of course, the nature of capital is profit-seeking, and the nature of capitalists is greed.
At this time, Wang Jianlin was no longer satisfied with the existing achievements, but began to try a new commercial real estate model at a fast speed.
This business model is to sign a lease contract with the merchant first, and then build a shopping mall, which can greatly reduce the risk of enterprise investment management.
In 2000, Wanda Group developed and constructed its first commercial real estate project, Wanda Plaza, in Chongqing Road, Changchun, and has since begun the road of cross-regional development in full swing.
Unexpectedly, within a few years, the development of Wanda Group has been like a bamboo, and the rent collection rate of Wanda Plaza has exceeded the world industry record of 99% many times.
With the construction of a series of ecological chains such as Wanda Plaza, Wanda Department Store and Wanda Cinema, Wanda has gradually built itself into a commercial group integrating commerce, culture, real estate, finance and other industries.
I have to say that in the field of business closed-loop, Wanda is definitely ahead of its time.
The domestic business development is smooth, and Wanda Group has set its sights on foreign countries.
In May 2012, Wanda Group invested 16 billion yuan to acquire AMC, the largest chain of cinemas in the United States, and has since begun to accelerate the pace of expansion.
In the three years from 2013 to the end of 2015, Wanda has invested more than $15 billion in more than 10 countries around the world, including $10 billion in the United States alone.
From AMC Cinemas in the United States to Hoyts in Australia, from luxury yacht manufacturers to five-star hotels, Wanda has been included in the bag.
According to statistics, Wang Jianlin's total overseas investment exceeded 2,000 small goals.
By the end of 2019, Wanda Group had 323 Wanda Plazas and 110 Wanda Department Store stores in operation.
At the same time, Wanda Group is also building Wanda Cultural Tourism City in 13 cities including Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong and the Yangtze River Delta.
Wanda City, which is in full swing, once boasted that Haikou would make Shanghai Disneyland unprofitable for 20 years.
However, judging from Wanda's achievements at that time, this slogan was not an exaggeration, but had sufficient capital and confidence.
In 2015, Wang Jianlin topped the list of the world's richest Chinese with assets of 260 billion yuan, becoming the richest Chinese in the world.
It can be said that Wanda Group is a god-like existence in the business field.
However, for any business, risk and excellence can be converted in an instant.
While Wanda Group is expanding wildly overseas, it has also laid hidden dangers for its own fate of selling.
According to statistics, Wanda Group has invested as much as 250 billion yuan overseas in three years, and has invested in Australia, Europe, the United States and India and other places, and the investment projects involve real estate, film and television, hotels, entertainment facilities and other fields.
The speed of overseas expansion and the magnanimity of the acquisition are all jaw-dropping, but the speedy acquisition plan inevitably makes people question: Where did the money come from? How did it move out? The conclusion can be imagined.
It is said that capital knows no borders and there is nothing wrong with investing overseas, but if you take loans from domestic banks and go abroad to expand frantically, the result will be an excessive outflow of foreign exchange capital, which will have an impact on the stability of foreign exchange reserves.
The state characterized Wanda Group's overseas investment projects as irrational and abnormal investment behaviors and restricted them.
The pace of overseas expansion was halted, and Wanda Group was caught off guard. However, what really made Wanda fall off the altar was the double kill of stocks and bonds in 2016, and the total debt of Wanda Group reached 592.745 billion yuan.
In June 2017, in order to quickly withdraw funds and alleviate debt pressure, Wanda Group had to abandon the car and start selling overseas assets.
The first asset to be sold is the Spanish Building.
In 2014, Wanda Group acquired Spain Tower for 265 million euros, and the sale price was 272 million euros.
The deal appeared to be profitable, but Wanda Group actually lost nearly 200 million yuan due to the change in the exchange rate of the euro against the yuan.
Not only that, Wanda Group has successively sold the ONE project in London, Australia, and the Sydney project at low prices.
On November 24, 2017, Wanda Hotel announced that the company had completed the sale of the Chicago property project and no longer held the interests of the target company, and since then, all overseas real estate projects under Wanda Group have been emptied.
Originally, according to the initial estimate, Wanda Group only needed to sell half of the project to pay off the debt. Helplessly, due to the low selling price, all the real estate projects could only be sold out in the end.
Everyone thought that after the sale of Wanda Group's overseas projects, Wanda's operation and management would be on the right track. Surprisingly, Wanda Group still has not stopped selling.
In 2017, Wanda Group had to reluctantly sell 77 hotels and 13 cultural tourism projects in one go.
Even Wanda Plaza in Jiujiang and Nanchang has quietly changed hands. Even so, in the face of huge debts, everything is just a drop in the bucket.
Thankfully, a year later, Wanda's liabilities fell to within the safety limit, giving Wanda, which had been struggling to repay its debts, a respite.
It's just that Wanda Group at this time has already been sold, and Wang Jianlin's operation of selling and selling has also become a typical case of a strong man breaking his wrist to save himself.
At this time, Wanda Group needs to find a breakthrough to get rid of the dilemma and regain its vitality.
In 2018, when all companies were looking for a new track, Wang Jianlin was desperate and still wanted to return to the top through the real estate industry.
He pinned his hopes on Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, intending to build a listed real estate company.
In order to quickly make up for the liquidity problem, Wanda Group had to turn to the outside world for help, and they signed VAM agreements with 22 investment institutions, including Tencent, CITIC Capital, and Ant Group.
According to the agreement, Wanda Group borrowed 30 billion yuan from these 22 investment institutions, and also promised investors that by the end of 2023, Wanda Group would be successfully listed.
In the event of default, Wanda Group will not only have to repay the principal, but also have to carry 12% interest, totaling 40 billion, either to take out loans or to offset assets.
However, in the face of the previous dilemma of the real estate market, until the expiration of the agreement, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management was unsuccessful in listing four times in a row.
Wanda Group was once again heavily indebted, and as a last resort, Wang Jianlin could only restart the pace of selling and selling again.
In the two-month period from March to April 2023, Wanda Investment cashed out through two share reductions, obtaining more than 2 billion yuan.
On July 11, Wanda Investment transferred 180 million shares of the company to Oriental Wealth for a consideration of about 2.173 billion yuan in accordance with the requirements of the agreement.
Only 12 days later, Wang Jianlin transferred the shares of Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd. to Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television Production Co., Ltd. in two installments, and Wanda Film also changed hands.
Although the VAM crisis of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's listing has been lifted, Wanda's financial situation has not improved.
In order to quickly recoup funds, so far, Wanda Group has sold a total of 14 Wanda Plazas, and even Wanda Plazas in first-tier cities such as Guangzhou and Shanghai have not escaped the fate of being sold.
According to Tianyancha, in mid-March this year, the investor of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. has been changed to Beijing Tianding Kunyang Technology Co., Ltd., and the company's registered capital has also increased from 10 million to 290 million, and Beijing Tianding Kunyang Technology Co., Ltd. has officially become a wholly-owned shareholder.
The big test facing Wanda Group is how to balance the pressure on the capital chain in the context of the complex and volatile global business environment, while optimizing the debt structure and maintaining the continuous growth and innovation of the business.
In fact, after a series of tosses and turns, Wang Jianlin led Wanda Group to seek a new way out.
They set their sights on emerging business areas, such as artificial intelligence and digital technology, hoping to promote the transformation and upgrading of enterprises and find new growth points by changing the traditional way of industrial operation.
2024 is indeed a challenging year for Wanda Group.
Although Wanda Group is indeed facing many difficulties and challenges, the leadership team headed by Wang Jianlin has not collapsed, but has worked hard to find a breakthrough in the reform and lead the group company back to the top.
Time is the best witness to what the future will be.
Wanda Group, a business empire built by Wang Jianlin, has made great progress and created one miracle after another, and Wanda's presence has also spread all over the core areas of major cities across the country.
However, in just 10 years, Wang Jianlin has changed from a billionaire with assets of tens of billions to a loser, and such a gap is regrettable.
Since ancient times, shopping malls have been like battlefields, and in the fierce market competition, no one will be the eternal winner.
The experience of Wanda Group has also sounded the alarm for many enterprises fighting in the business sea.
No matter how the enterprise develops, it must respect the laws of the market.
Only by being strategically far-sighted can we open up a steady and lasting path of development.
References:
1. The Paper: Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's Dalian Xinda Alliance's equity of about 16.2 billion yuan was frozen, which was unfrozen on March 25
2. Sina Finance: Wanda's equity freeze has added a new example
3. Oriental Fortune Network: Wanda News!16.2 billion yuan of equity unfrozen
4. Weibo: Wanda's latest response to the freezing of 16.2 billion shares
The author of this article: Chenyuan
Editor in charge: Lao Lu