Author |Cao Anxun.
Edit |Zhang Xiaoling.
In 2017, Wanda encountered a financial crisis, Sunac Sun Hongbin, R&F Zhang Zhang, and Li Silian became white knights, spending 43.8 billion and 19.9 billion respectively to take over Wanda Cultural Tourism City and Wanda Hotel, saving Wang Jianlin.
6 years later, Wanda's listing failed, and the VAM agreement expired, Wang Jianlin sold Wanda Films in order to raise money to redeem the war investment, and in exchange for the strong support of the war investors, he invested again, and saved the Wang family father and son.
On December 12, at the last moment of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's listing limit, Shan Weijian, a capital tycoon and chairman of the "Asian Little Blackstone" PAG Group, reached out to help Wang Jianlin and Wanda back from the edge of the cliff.
Dalian Wanda Commercial Management announced on December 12 that PAG Investment Group (hereinafter referred to as PAG) and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management have signed a new investment agreement. PAG will work with other investors to reinvest its subsidiary, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management (hereinafter referred to as Wanda Commercial Management), without any VAM attached, upon the expiration of the redemption period of the original VAM agreement and after redemption by Dalian Wanda Commercial Management.
Before preparing to go public in 2021, a number of strategic investors invested a total of about 38 billion yuan in Wanda Commercial Management, of which PAG invested about 2.8 billion US dollars (about 18 billion yuan), which is the largest single strategic investment. They agreed with Wanda to go public by the end of 2023, and if they fail to do so, they will trigger redemptions, which is also the root cause of Wanda's recent financial crisis.
This time, PAG stood up to support Wanda and made a new investment, which means that the previous gambling crisis of nearly 40 billion yuan between Wanda Commercial Management and war investors has been lifted.
But like Sun Hongbin, Wang Jianlin also paid a tragic price for this. According to the new agreement, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management and Wang Jianlin's shareholding in Wanda Commercial Management will increase from the original 7015% fell sharply to 40%, and the cumulative shareholding ratio of several new and old strategic investment companies such as PAG increased to about 60%.
The fund-raising action to prepare for the redemption also made Wang Jianlin lose a lot of high-quality assets at the bottom of the box.
On December 6, Wanda Film announced that Shanghai Ruyi, which has a Tencent background, and its major shareholder Ke Liming will take over the 51 shares of Wanda Film held by Wang JianlinAccording to industrial and commercial information, Wang Jianlin has returned to at least five Wanda Plazas.
Looking back on the past five or six years, whenever Wang Jianlin encounters a crisis, it seems that there are white knights to help him break through the line.
In 2017, there was a real estate century transaction of about 63 billion yuan, Sunac Sun Hongbin and R&F Li Silian respectively took over Wang Jianlin's 13 cultural tourism projects and 77 Wanda hotels.
This time, the white knight has become the Taimeng and the war warriors behind it. As one of Asia's largest independent alternative investment management groups, PAG is a dominant player in the capital markets, and its third largest shareholder is overseas private equity giant Blackstone. According to the prospectus, PAG's investment scale has exceeded 70 billion US dollars, of which 52% is invested in Greater China, and Tencent**, Lexin, Naixue's tea, Youran Dairy, etc. have been listed.
Shan Weijian, co-founder and chairman of PAG, is the "king of China's private equity" and a super investor in Asia who came out of Wall Street, and has many classic cases of acquiring troubled institutions and companies such as the First Bank of Korea and selling them after they get out of trouble.
Of course, the main reason why Wanda has been able to survive the crisis again and again is that Wang Jianlin has many high-quality assets in his hands. Wanda Commercial Management is already the world's largest business management company in terms of commercial area under management.
The cultural tourism city in 2017, the current 400 Wanda Plaza, this is Wang Jianlin's biggest bargaining chip.
For a private equity giant like PAG, Wanda is clearly a good investment choice for a commercial real estate leader with 494 Wanda Plazas that are closely related to mass consumption.
At a time when real estate companies have been out of insurance one after another, and sales and profits have declined sharply, Wanda Commercial Management has still maintained good profitability. According to the official website of Dalian Wanda, Wanda Commercial Management has exceeded its performance target for three consecutive years, with an average annual growth of about 12% in after-tax income, and after-tax income and after-tax profit in 2023 are estimated to be 29.3 billion yuan and 9.5 billion yuan respectively.
More fundamentally, Wang Jianlin has the sincerity to solve the problem, has the decisiveness, and has the heart to make a big profit. In the last round of crisis, he sold hundreds of billions of assets to only tens of billions just to tide over the crisisThis time, he decisively sold Wanda Films, greatly diluted his shareholding ratio, and even lost his absolute controlling stake, this kind of determination is not something that every bigwig has.
Only those who save themselves can be saved. Wang Jianlin, who has experienced many industry adjustments, may have already seen that there is no major event except life and death.
Some investors lamented that Wang Jianlin is a rare doer in China, and he is very skillful and courageous.
After all, the most fundamental thing that wants savvy investors to continue to be in the same boat with Wanda is still profit.
Now, with Wang Jianlin's efforts, the VAM crisis of Wanda Commercial Management's listing has been lifted, and the war investors are willing to continue to bet on Wanda Commercial Management and gamble with Wang Jianlin again.
A person from a brokerage firm said that the lifting of the VAM crisis has created a better environment for Wang Jianlin and Wanda to maintain a good credit rating, which will improve the confidence of the capital market in Wanda and help its financing channels be smooth.
The cases of Wanda and Sunac show that in this era of spreading credit crisis, the determination and strength of enterprises and bosses to save themselves are becoming increasingly important, and it also indicates that there are still investment prospects in the real estate industry. Since the beginning of this year, coal bosses, Jinpai, Li Ning, and Liu Yiqian, the "folk stock god", have increased their positions in real estate, acquired land, bought buildings, etc., and the wind of the first has spread.
The new agreement announced by PAG and Wanda on December 12 finally allows Wang Jianlin, who has been busy and haggard, to finally breathe a sigh of relief and focus on improving his business.
Looking ahead, Wanda said that the signing of the new investment agreement demonstrates investors' confidence in Wanda Commercial Management's future growth, and Wanda will work with PAG and other important shareholders to further optimize the company's corporate governance, maintain the stability of the management team, and jointly support the company's long-term development.
This confidence will help Wang Jianlin get through this cold winter, and his spring may not be too far away.
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