Wang Jianlin, the "lonely brave", held hands with insurance funds

Undoubtedly, 2024 will not be too easy for Wang Jianlin and Wanda.

Zhongfang Daily reporter Miao Ye reported from Beijing

After waiting for 60 billion yuan of "life money", Wang Jianlin put a core asset on the shelf.

On April 12, Tianyancha information showed that Beijing Wanda Plaza Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Beijing Wanda Industrial") underwent industrial and commercial changes, the original wholly-owned shareholder Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wanda Commercial Management") withdrew, and the new shareholder Kunhua (Tianjin) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), holding 99.99% of the shares as the controlling shareholder, and Kunyuan Chenxing (Xiamen) Investment Management Consulting Co., Ltd. holding 0.01% of the shares. The core management personnel have also changed at the same time.

It is worth noting that Kunhua (Tianjin) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) is a limited partnership fund, which is held by New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. ("Xinhua Insurance") and CICC Capital Operation Co., Ltd. ("CICC Capital") holding 99.99% and 0.01% of the shares respectively.

This is another takeover of insurance funds. Previously, insurance funds such as Dajia Insurance and Hengqin Life Insurance have invested in the Wanda Plaza project in Shanghai.

Wanda did not give any response to the change of ownership of Beijing Wanda Industrial.

A person close to Wanda revealed that Wanda's pace of selling assets has not stopped, and the main purpose of selling Wanda Plaza is to raise funds to pay off debts. Since the second half of last year, Wanda has been withdrawing from asset-heavy projects step by step, which is also a strategic need for Wanda's asset-light operation.

At the end of last year, New China Insurance announced that it had signed a limited partnership agreement with CICC Capital to jointly establish a fund with a fund size of 10 billion yuan, of which CICC Capital subscribed 1 million yuan as a general partner. In terms of investment strategy, New China Insurance has clarified that the fund will directly or indirectly invest mainly in the investee enterprises of the assets of the holding real estate projects through equity and other means permitted by applicable law, so as to achieve investment returns for partners.

Beijing Wanda Industrial is the fund's first outbound investment.

This is part of a series of recent asset sales by Wanda. Bai Wenxi, chief economist of IPG China, said that this is the same as the previous sale of 15 Wanda Plazas, which is the financial strategy and business adjustment strategy of Wanda Group to leverage, reduce debt, and optimize corporate liquidity in the current market environment.

According to public information, Beijing Wanda Industrial was formerly known as Beijing Wanda Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. Up to now, Wanda Commercial Management has laid out a total of 13 Wanda Plazas in Beijing, and there is no clear news on whether these assets will be transferred to Beijing Wanda Industrial by Wanda Commercial Management as a whole.

Bai Wenxi mentioned that from the information learned so far, the assets sold by Wanda Group mainly include Wanda Plaza and related commercial real estate projects. These assets are not confined to the Beijing area, but are distributed throughout the country. "These projects are still managed and operated by Wanda Commercial Management after the change of ownership. He said.

Other market participants believe that this transaction can also be seen as the beginning of the real estate purchase by insurance funds, or based on the judgment that the entire real estate industry has bottomed out. "It is not excluded that Wang Jianlin gave a lower price than the current market price this time, relatively speaking, Wanda Plaza's location advantage, rental and sales cost performance is higher, and the insurance capital is also a stable and profitable deal. ”

In fact, since last year, Wanda, which is trapped in the pressure of Hong Kong stock IPOs and gambling, has continued to "slim down", and incomplete statistics show that Wanda has sold a total of 15 Wanda Plazas, involving Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Haikou and other places. At that time, at the beginning of 2023, it was reported that Wanda had pushed a list of assets to an insurance fund, and the list included 40~50 Wanda Plazas located in first- and second-tier cities. It is also reported that Wanda Group is considering selling its 20 commercial centers, each with a valuation of 700 million ~ 800 million yuan. The news about Wanda Group's plan to sell its Wanda Plaza in the first- and second-tier cities in exchange for liquidity continues to ferment.

"The premise of the sale is that Wanda must give a very low discount, and only if the safety cushion is thick enough, the risk can be controlled. According to the above-mentioned insider, insurance funds generally require a net rate of return of about 8%, so buyers and sellers take what they need, and there will inevitably be other additional conditions, such as whether Wanda will repurchase in a few years?

Bai Wenxi believes that by selling assets, Wanda Group will be able to quickly obtain cash flow and alleviate short-term financial pressures, which is crucial for companies facing debt maturities and liquidity challenges. In addition, the sale of asset-heavy projects will help Wanda further optimize its asset structure, reduce its dependence on heavy assets, and focus on the development of asset-light businesses.

"While the sale of assets may have an impact on market confidence, Wanda can maintain the market influence of its brand and the continuity of its commercial operations, as well as maintain its own commercial resource organization capabilities by retaining management and operation rights. Bai Wenxi said that the cooperation with insurance companies and other institutions will bring more business opportunities and financial support to Wanda in the future. While there are some challenges in the short term, it will help Wanda achieve more agile and sustainable development in the long term.

Wanda Plaza has always been Wang Jianlin's "heart", and it can be said that it is Wang Jianlin's home field. At the beginning of 2019, he said that Wanda Commercial is Wanda's core enterprise.

Wang Jianlin said: "I can put any enterprise, but this enterprise can't." At that time, Wanda Commercial Management's annual rental income reached 32.88 billion yuan, and Wang Jianlin predicted that "in about a few years, this figure will reach 100 billion yuan. ”

But with the official fall of a transaction worth 60 billion yuan on March 30, Wang Jianlin lost absolute control of this core asset, and Wanda Commercial Management ushered in a new investor.

PAG, together with CITIC Capital, Ares Management, Platinum Peony and Mubadala Investment Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), jointly invested approximately RMB60 billion in Dalian Sundameng Commercial Management Co., Ltd., holding a total of 60% of the shares, and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's shareholding decreased from 70.15% to 40%.

At the signing ceremony that day, 70-year-old Wang Jianlin did not attend. The outside world also interprets this as "Wang Jianlin's silence and low-key".

Under the pressure of the past year, Wang Jianlin not only has to sell assets to recoup funds, negotiate new solutions with "financiers", but also "travel" the country for Wanda's next plan. Although it lost its absolute controlling stake, Wanda was finally freed from the seven-year-old listing VAM.

As of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Wanda Commercial Management's total assets were 611.583 billion yuan, total liabilities were 303.36 billion yuan, net assets were 308.224 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio remained at the level of 49.6%. In terms of debt structure, Wanda Commercial Management mainly has non-current liabilities, accounting for 64% of the total liabilities, with a total of 124.561 billion yuan of non-current medium and long-term interest-bearing liabilities, and about 66.2 billion yuan of non-current liabilities due within one year.

From a liquidity perspective, Wanda Commercial Management is facing certain short-term debt repayment pressure. During the reporting period, the company's monetary funds were 13.269 billion yuan, a decrease compared with the end of 2022, which could not cover short-term debt, and the cash-to-short-debt ratio was only 0.2.

"One of the tasks in 2024 is to reduce costs and increase efficiency. This is the briefest work deployment of Wang Jianlin at Wanda's annual work conference on January 14 this year.

Undoubtedly, 2024 will not be too easy for Wang Jianlin and Wanda.