After some maneuvering, the crisis alarm hanging over Wang Jianlin and his Wanda business empire was finally temporarily lifted. On December 12, Wanda Group's official website announced that Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group signed a new investment agreement with PAG. According to the new agreement, PAG will work with other investors to reinvest in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management after redemption by Wanda Commercial Management Group upon the expiration of the investment redemption period. 
For the listing issues that are of concern to the outside world, new investments will no longer set up VAM agreements. This means that before the deadline for Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's listing in Hong Kong approaches, the VAM pressure on Wanda's listing has been "eliminated". But Wanda will also pay a lot of price for this - losing the absolute controlling stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management. The 38 billion yuan VAM crisis resolved Wanda's VAM crisis because of an institutional investment before listing. According to the information disclosed in the previous prospectus, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's institutional investors include 22 companies, including Zheng Yutong's family, Country Garden, CITIC Capital, Ant, Tencent, and PAG Investment Group, and these investors invested about 38 billion yuan in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management in August 2021, of which PAG's investment was about 2.8 billion US dollars (about 18 billion yuan), and the existing investors enjoyed redemption rights at maturity in the original investment arrangement. Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management signed a VAM agreement with investors, first, the actual net profit from 2021 to 2023 cannot be less than 51900 million yuan, 74300 million yuan, 94600 million yuan, otherwise Wanda Commercial Management will transfer the relevant number of shares at zero consideration or pay cash compensation;The second is to go public in 2023 at the latest, otherwise Wanda Commercial Management will have to repurchase shares from investors and pay additional compensation. According to the performance data disclosed by Wanda, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has exceeded its performance target for three consecutive years, with after-tax revenue of 23.5 billion yuan in 2021, 27.1 billion yuan in 2022, and 29.3 billion yuan in 2023 (estimated), with an average annual growth rate of about 12%;Profit after tax was $5.3 billion in 2021, $7.5 billion in 2022 and $9.5 billion in 2023 (estimated), with an annual growth rate of 34%. But the biggest problem in front of Wang Jianlin is that the road to listing of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is full of twists and turns. After the introduction of investors, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management began to submit a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In October 2021, April 2022, October 2022, and June 2023, it submitted listing application materials to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange four times, and now the fourth submission is about to "expire", and Zhuhai Wanda's listing has reached the deadline. If Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is unable to go public as agreed, the repurchase agreement will be triggered, and Wanda will need to pay a huge amount of equity repurchase money to some investors before the listing. In its submission to the CSRC in March, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management indicated that if Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management could not be successfully listed by the end of 2023, the issuer would need to pay about 30 billion yuan in equity buybacks to pre-listing investors. This will be an extreme test of Wanda's cash flow. And with the signing of a new agreement, this crisis will be resolved. According to Yicai, on the issue of listing, new investments will no longer set up VAM agreements. But Wanda will also pay a lot of price for this - losing the absolute controlling stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management. According to the new agreement, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management holds 40% of the shares, making it the single largest shareholder, and several existing and new investor shareholders such as PAG participate in the investment, holding a total of 60% of the shares. Prior to this, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management directly owned about 69 of the total issued shares of Zhuhai Wanda99% interest, and indirectly owns approximately 8 of the total issued shares through Zhuhai Wanxin, Zhuhai Wanying and Yinchuan Wanda84% interest;22 companies and six senior executives hold shares, holding 2115% equity. In other words, after the signing of the new agreement, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group's shareholding in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management fell by at least 2999%, while the shareholding ratio of the aforementioned investors increased by 3885% According to Blue Whale Finance, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's newly introduced war investment is mainly foreign investors, and some of the original domestic investors will withdraw. Another investor of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management also said that the majority of investors in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management are indeed foreign investors, but the current list of new investors has not been fully determined. Regarding whether Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management will redeem the investment on time when the redemption period expires, the above-mentioned investor said, "After Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management negotiates with the new investors, it is expected that there will be a transitional stage for the exit of the original strategic investment, and the process is more complicated, and all parties are currently discussing." According to China's ** newspaper, people close to Wanda responded to this, the signing of the new agreement, some existing investors chose to withdraw from the investment, but the vast majority of investors retained their investment in Wanda, and more importantly, there are new investors entering, including some overseas investors, reflecting the high affirmation of the growth potential of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management and the high recognition of its operating capabilities. According to the interim report of Wanda Commercial Management Bonds (2023), the company's interest-bearing debts within 6 months totaled 158400 million yuan. That is, Wanda Commercial Management still has 158$400 million of interest-bearing debt matures during the year. The report also shows that Wanda Commercial Management's interest-bearing debt due in the first half of 2024 is 1341.7 billion yuan. Short-term debt service pressures cannot be ignored. Since the beginning of this year, in order to alleviate Wanda's tight financial situation, Wang Jianlin has begun to sell assets one after another. On December 6, Wanda Film issued a suspension announcement, the company's indirect controlling shareholder Beijing Wanda Cultural Industry Group *** and Beijing Hengrun Enterprise Management and Development *** Company Actual Controller Wang Jianlin intends to transfer 51% of the company's controlling shareholder Beijing Wanda Investment *** hereinafter referred to as "Wanda Investment") to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management *** If the above matters are finally implemented, it will lead to a change of control of the company. And in July this year, China Ruyi issued an announcement saying that Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television was 226.2 billion yuan to acquire 49% of the shares of Wanda Investment held by Beijing Wanda Cultural Industry Group. After the completion of the transaction, Shanghai Ruyi Film and Television directly holds 49% of Wanda Investment's shares, and Wanda Culture Group's shareholding in Wanda Investment has increased from 988% becomes 498%。This time, Wang Jianlin also transferred the remaining equity of Wanda Investment. Also in July this year, Wang Jianlin has "sold movies" twice, Lu Lili, the "boss" of Oriental Fortune, and Shen County Rongzhi, a concerted action person of Wanda Investment, have successively acquired Wanda Film 1800,000,000 shares and 17.7 billion shares. In addition to Wanda Films, in the first half of this year, Wanda Plaza was also put on the shelves. Wanda Plaza has always been the core of Wanda's commercial landscape. As of the end of March 2023, a total of 479 Wanda Plazas have been opened, distributed in more than 200 cities across the country, with a total construction area of more than 66 million square meters. According to the 21st Century Business Herald, in May this year, Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Xining Haihu Wanda Plaza and Jiangmen Taishan Wanda Plaza were acquired by Dajia Insurance. In September, Guangxi Beihai Hepu Wanda Plaza was transferred, and the receiver was a local real estate company in Beihai. In October, Shanghai Zhoupu Wanda Plaza was transferred, and the receiver also insured. According to the surging news on December 7, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management recently communicated with investors that Wanda Group is considering selling some.
Wanda Plaza in first- and second-tier cities in exchange for working capital is currently negotiating with insurance institutions. However, it remains to be seen how it will progress. According to the 2023 Hurun Report released by the Hurun Research Institute on October 24, among the richest people on this year's list who have seen the biggest decline in wealth include Wanda's Wang Jianlin family, whose wealth has fallen by about 53 billion yuan.