After disappearing for more than a year, Wang Sicong's reappearance obviously represents some special meanings.
On November 27, a project signing ceremony was held in Tai'an City, Shandong Province, which was attended by local leaders and Wang Sicong, a top online streamer who had not appeared for a long time.
Judging from the ** that flowed out of the scene, Wang Sicong in a sweatshirt stood out in a suit and leather shoes, and there was ** to interpret it interestingly as Wang Sicong's last stubbornness, however, if we further understand the information behind the signed project, we will find some very interesting places.
According to the official introduction of Tai'an, the project that Wang Sicong participated in is called: Taishan Cultural Tourism and Fitness Center, with a total construction area of about 3550,000 square meters, mainly including stadiums, swimming pools, gymnasiums, in addition to the project also breaks the layout of traditional sports centers, the introduction of commerce, catering, entertainment, culture and other formats.
In other words, this is actually a supermarket derived from sports as its core function, and Beijing Huanju Commercial Management, the company represented by Wang Sicong, does not have his father Wang Jianlin and Wanda behind it from the results of its equity penetration.
However, whether it is from the project itself or the contracted company, Wanda's shadow is almost everywhere.
Wanda started from commercial real estate, and the construction of supermarkets derived from the cultural and tourism function is its forte, and the business scope of Beijing Huanju Commercial Management, the contracted company, is also the main direction of Wanda's business transformation in recent years.
If combined with the several announcements released by Wanda in the past half month, Wang Sicong's comeback also represents Wanda's current danger to a certain extent, and it has reached the point where father and son need to go into battle together.
Just a week before Wang Sicong's public appearance, Wanda Commercial Management issued an announcement: due to the current downturn in the real estate industry and the company's difficulties in refinancing, in order to reduce short-term liquidity pressure, the company decided to take the initiative to carry out liquidity management in advance, and adjusted the debt repayment plan of US$600 million originally scheduled to expire in January 2024 to be repaid in four installments within one year.
To put it simply, Wanda decided to defer the repayment of a debt that is about to mature, which is called liquidity management at best, but actually a debt thunderstorm.
However, because Wanda said in the announcement that it would only extend this debt and pay it off within one year, the conditions were acceptable, and there was no such situation of doing charity before the thunderstorm, so the overall evaluation of Wanda's action from all walks of life was: thunderstorm of conscience.
But no matter how good the conscience is, it is also a thunderstorm, and the issuance of this announcement also means that Wanda's credit in the bond market has been broken.
Friends who don't know much about the bond market may not know Wanda's position in the bond market.
Since the outbreak of the real estate crisis in 2021, although Wanda's equity has been frozen many times, its public debt has been paid on time and has never defaulted, and this $600 million debt extension has broken Wanda's accumulated credit in the financing market.
Although Wanda itself said in the announcement that it would only extend this debt, from the experience of friends in the past, there are only 0 and countless extensions, and whether Wanda can survive is an unknown for the capital market.
Secondly, this debt extension also basically announced the fourth listing impact of Wanda Commercial Management, with a few success rates.
After Wanda tearfully dumped its cultural tourism assets and hotel business in 2017, Wanda, which transformed into an asset-light commercial management business, avoided the real estate crisis in 2021 due to a blessing in disguise.
And the business layout behind this company is worth talking about.
As one of the earliest companies to set foot in the field of commercial real estate in China, Wanda Commercial was established in 2002.
In 2014, Wanda Commercial was listed on the Hong Kong stock market, but due to the low stock price after the listing, Wang Jianjian believed that its commercial value was undervalued by the market, so it was delisted from Hong Kong in 2016, and a year later, Wang Jianlin transferred 14 of its cultural tourism projects and 73 hotels to Sunac and R&F for 62.7 billion yuan.
After the completion of the transaction, Wang Jianlin split Wanda Commercial into Wanda Commercial Management and Wanda Real Estate, and the real estate business continued to shrink, while the commercial management business started a comprehensive asset-light business model, no longer engaged in real estate development and sales business, and only provided commercial management and property management services.
In January 2018, Wanda Commercial Management introduced strategic investors such as Tencent, Suning, and JD.com to acquire 14% of its shares for 34 billion yuan, and signed a VAM agreement, the company needs to complete the listing in 2023, otherwise it will carry out share repurchases, and its amount will exceed 40 billion yuan in terms of principal and interest.
In the following years, after trying to list A-shares unsuccessfully, Wang Jianlin transferred the company's assets to Wanda Zhuhai Commercial Management Subsidiary to promote its listing in Hong Kong, but many impacts were unsuccessful, and on June 28, 2023, Wanda Commercial Management submitted the statement for the fourth time, but there is still no further news until today.
This debt rollover, while revealing to the outside world that the company's cash flow is under pressure, also basically declares that the impact will still end in failure.
According to the terms of the VAM, Wanda Commercial Management will repurchase and compensate strategic investors for more than 40 billion yuan in 2024, which is why Wanda said in the announcement that it needs to carry out cash flow management in advance and extend the debt of 600 million US dollars.
Judging from the financial report data alone, Wanda Commercial Management's cash flow management has declined very seriously in recent years.
According to the latest semi-annual report disclosed in August, Wanda Commercial Management's cash assets are about 1469.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5344%, while the company's interest-bearing liabilities due in one year are 292With 5.7 billion yuan, plus 40 billion yuan of gambling money, Wanda Group's cash flow can no longer cover its short-term debt.
In order to solve Wanda's financial problem, Wang Jianlin's plan was to sell assets and transfer Wanda Films, 22The sale of 600 million yuan of Wanda Investment, in addition to pledging shares in exchange for financing loans, and issuing high-interest bonds to borrow old and new, are all Wanda's operations in the capital market in the past year.
Thankfully, Wanda's $600 million debt extension plan has been agreed by investors, which has allowed Wang Jianlin to take a breather, and he is currently trying to extend the $40 billion VAM agreement until 2036 at the cost of 20% equity collateral, but judging from the news from many sources, several strategic investors are not interested in this.
Is a penny a hero, and now in front of Wang Jianli, there are 400 small goals.
What is touching is that only one year ago, Wang Jianlin, who escaped the industry crisis with his asset-light transformation, also acted as a white knight to go around and acquire real estate resources such as Beijing Blue Harbor and Wukesong Zhuozhan Shopping Center.
The ups and downs of the business sea, the current situation is easier to show in Wang Jianlin's body is so obvious, this time and Tai'an signed a contract with Beijing Huanju, established less than 5 months, before that, Wang Sicong's attitude and views on the outside world have always been unwilling to return to Wanda**, his main focus is on games, e-sports, entertainment marketing and other pan-entertainment sectors.
Tai'an Cultural Tourism Fitness Center is a rare attempt by Wang Sicong to get closer to his father in business, Wang Jianlin has said more than once in front of ** that if Wang Sicong is unwilling, he will consider professional managers.
But judging from Wanda's current situation, there is probably only one person who can trust Wang Jianlin.