Once upon a time, the Wanda Spring Festival Gala was the soul of Wanda's annual meeting, and Wang Jianlin's solo was a reserved program. In the 2016 Wanda Spring Festival Gala, Wang Jianlin sang "Nothing", which had more than 1 billion hits on the whole network. This year, he was also the "god of song delayed by the richest man".
The 2023 annual meeting is low-key enough, and the news on the official website about Wang Jianlin's work summary is only more than 110 words, not to mention singing.
Along with the annual meeting, there is also his Wanda Plaza. With the recent completion of Wanda Plaza in front of Xiamen Palace**, as many as 10 Wanda Plazas have been sold in the past year.
In the public's impression, Wanda Plaza has always been Wang Jianlin's heart. "I can put any business, but I can't put this; You can lose anything, you can't lose this," Wang Jianlin once said.
Letting go of the identity of the "singer" and the obsession of the industry, will Wang Jianlin give up more in the future?
Figure: Wanda Group's official website.
Why did it sell again?
Wanda Lugang is the first Wanda Plaza in Fujian and the "largest complex on Xiamen Island". With a total construction area of more than 310,000 square meters, it is positioned as a pan entertainment, culture and leisure center in southern Fujian, and will be built by Xianglu Tenglong Group and Wanda Group in 2021, with the latter investing 1 billion yuan.
is such a shopping mall with a good texture, which was put on the shelves by Wanda.
Once upon a time, in Wang Jianlin's eyes, it was only a matter of time before Wanda earned 100 billion yuan in annual rent. Wanda only needs Wanda Commercial, which can sit firmly on the fishing boat regardless of the wind and waves.
It's a pity that the first to come was "**."
On January 19, Tianyancha information showed that as the certification body of Wanda Lugang, the commercial management of Wanda Plaza in front of Xiamen Dianqian underwent industrial and commercial changes. The original wholly-owned shareholder Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group withdrew, and Xiamen Jinshengyang Real Estate was added as a shareholder.
Xiamen Jinshengyang Real Estate was established in 2011, the legal representative is Wu Chengkun, and its business scope includes commercial circulation facilities and commercial building management, leasing, property management, etc.
China News Weekly called Wanda Lugang, and the staff said that the mall's operation and investment promotion are normal, and the Wanda Plaza will still retain the Wanda brand, which will be managed and serviced by Wanda.
This is already the tenth Wanda Plaza sold by Wanda. From December 25 to 30 last year, Huzhou Wanda, Taicang Wanda, Guangzhou Luogang Wanda and Shanghai Jinshan Wanda were sold successively, and 4 Wanda Plazas were sold in 5 days. Tianyancha equity penetration shows that the companies that took over the equity of Wanda Plaza are all subsidiaries of Zoomlion.
Earlier in May, Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza, Xining Haihu Wanda Plaza, and Jiangmen Taishan Wanda Plaza were successively acquired by Dajia Insurance; Beihai Hepu Wanda Plaza was also acquired by Hepu Wanghe Real Estate, a local private enterprise in Beihai, in September; In October, Shanghai Zhoupu Wanda Plaza was transferred, and the receiver also insured.
As the main holder of Wanda Group's commercial center, as of the end of 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wanda Commercial Management") manages a total of 498 Wanda Plazas, with an after-tax profit (estimated) of 9.5 billion yuan in 2023 and an average growth rate of 34% in the past three years. From this point of view, the sale of 10 of these plazas does not seem to mean much.
The key is that Wanda Plaza has always been the core of Wanda's commercial map, and Wanda Commercial Management also carries Wang Jianlin's strategic ambition of "asset-light model", which has always been regarded as the "meat of the heart".
Wang Jianlin sells more than just Wanda Plaza.
First, in January last year, in order to obtain loan financing, Wanda Commercial Real Estate Overseas *** has pledged all its ordinary shares of Wanda Hotel to the lender; In March and April, Wang Jianlin cashed out more than 1.5 billion yuan through Wanda Investment and Wanda Culture Group's **Wanda Film Co., Ltd.; In December, Wanda made a price of 215.5 billion sold 51% of Wanda Film's equity and lost control of Wanda Film.
Where does the pressure come from?
The repeated "cutting love" shows Wanda's urgency for cash flow.
Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, told China News Weekly that the root cause of Wanda's projects lies in excessive assets and declining cash flow capacity. ”
Wanda Commercial Management put the "lack of money" on the bright side in the financial report.
In its semi-annual report, it said that as of the end of June 2023, the issuer's consolidated interest-bearing liabilities were 14128.3 billion yuan, of which 292 are interest-bearing liabilities due within one year5.7 billion yuan, "the issuer's interest-bearing liabilities are large, and the maturity scale within one year is relatively high, and there is a certain debt pressure." ”
From the asset side, it is indeed difficult to move. As of the end of September 2023, Wanda Commercial Management's assets were about 611.6 billion yuan, of which about 461.7 billion yuan were investment real estate, accounting for about 75%.
As early as April 2015, Wang Jianlin shouted the slogan "transformation to asset-light". In 2018, "Wanda Commercial Real Estate" changed its name to "Wanda Commercial Management" and divested its real estate business in 2019. In 2021, Wanda Commercial Management, which is fully "light", will turn around and go public in Hong Kong with the restructuring entity "Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management".
China's commercial real estate has entered the era of stock, and its prospects are expected to weaken. It stands to reason that Wanda's actual controller said many years ago that he would hold the existing high-quality properties, but now the large-scale sell-off is hardly said to be for a simple transformation," Li Yujia pointed out.
As of November 2023, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management operates and manages 494 large-scale commercial centers, of which 290 are commercial centers under Dalian Wanda Commercial Management and 204 are third-party asset-light commercial centers.
In this regard, Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, pointed out to China News Weekly that Wanda used to be a self-built and self-operated asset-heavy model, and relied on this model to establish a management system for investment and construction, investment promotion and operation, and first-class business resources, which is also the basis for Wanda's shift to an asset-light model, which cannot be completely abandoned. Wanda's real core competitiveness lies in its ability to integrate resources.
The problem is that Wanda Commercial Management's resource integration ability cannot be accurately quantified, and in terms of data, it is easy to "misunderstand" the lack of quality of its de-real estate.
Another boulder hanging over Wanda's head is that Wanda has signed a "sky-high VAM" with investors - if Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management cannot be successfully listed by the end of 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group will need to pay investors about 30 billion yuan in equity repurchase.
On December 28, with the invalidation of the fourth prospectus of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, the "small goal" of listing in 2023 officially failed, but fortunately, Wanda Commercial Management did not have to pay back 30 billion yuan.
The price of the relief was that Wang Jianlin gave up absolute control of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management. On the edge of the cliff that triggered the bet, Wang Jianlin used equity as a bargaining chip to complete the extreme game in the countdown stage.
On December 12, 2023, according to the official website of Wanda Group, PAG and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group have jointly announced the signing of a new investment agreement.
Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has dropped to 40%, and it is still the single largest shareholder, with several existing and new investor shareholders such as PAG participating in the investment, holding a total of 60% of the shares. Prior to the new agreement, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management held more than 78% of the shares, and investors held 21 percent17％。
I said that I couldn't put it at the beginning, but I still let it go.
Continue to "sell"?
With the continuous "selling, selling, selling", it is not only Wanda's business territory that has shrunk, but also the net worth of Wang Jianlin's family.
In the 2022 "Hurun Report", Wang Jianlin's family returned to the throne of the richest man in real estate with a net worth of 100 billion yuan; Only a year later, on this list in 2023, Wang Jianlin's family net worth will be 47 billion yuan, and his wealth will shrink by 53 billion yuan, becoming the richest person in China with the largest net worth shrunk last year, and it has shrunk nearly 5 times from 220 billion yuan at its peak.
The growth pressure since 2023 is also reminiscent of Wang Jianlin's "**radical" in 2022.
Entering 2022, Wanda has become a "white knight": in March, it acquired a number of commercial projects under Henan Xinyuan Group; In April, it reached a cooperation with Henan Jianye, and at the same time won the overall operation and management rights of Beijing Solana Blue Harbor and Beijing Wukesong Zhuozhan Shopping Center; In July, he took over the unfinished building project in Hefei; In September, it began to take over 5 Oaks Plazas across the country.
From the return of the king at that time, to today's sudden change in painting style, the bullets fired out can't be recovered.
The question is, after selling so much, how much liquidity does Wanda still have?
According to data released by Wanda Commercial Management, as of November 23, 2023, more than 18 billion yuan of public debt has been repaid, and the current balance of domestic bonds has been reduced to about 6.9 billion yuan, of which 4.8 billion yuan needs to be repaid in 2024.
In terms of offshore debt, Wanda Commercial Management will repay the US$600 million debt that has been extended in four installments this year, with a US$400 million bond due in 2025 and 2026 respectively.
The listing failed, and Wang Jianlin had to face the withdrawal of old investors. On December 13, 2023, Yonghui Supermarket**Dalian Wanda Commercial Management's 143% stake; On December 14, Country Garden announced, **Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management 179% equity.
Therefore, in Li Yujia's view, Wanda's heavy asset sell-off will continue, "In the context of the continuous surplus and value of commercial real estate, the pressure on the operation of commercial real estate is increasing, and Wanda's debt pressure has not been completely resolved, this sell-off will continue." ”
Bai Wenxi also held a similar view, he pointed out that with the changes in the real estate market and the need for Wanda's strategic adjustment, heavy assets can effectively reduce liabilities and optimize the asset structure.
Assets can be sold, and we can buy them back when we get better," Mr. Wang once explained to executives internally.
In fact, "selling" cannot solve the essential problem, and sending Wanda Commercial Management to the market is the ultimate goal. After all, there are investors behind Wang Jianlin who are eager to settle down, and they have been waiting for a long time.
On January 16, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. added new foreign investment and established Dalian Xinda Alliance Commercial Management, Tianyancha information shows that the registered capital of Dalian Xinda League is 1620.7 billion yuan. You must know that the registered capital of Zhuhai Wanda, which was previously regarded by Wang Jianlin as Wanda's "core asset", is only 724.8 billion yuan.
In terms of structure, Xinda Alliance Commercial Management is almost entirely controlled by Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, and the legal representative is Xiao Guangrui, who is one of Wang Jianlin's "right-hand men"; The supervisor of the company is Ma Jun, who is the supervisor of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management.
Wanda's "Da" and PAG's "Alliance" are reminiscent. A number of interviewees told China News Weekly that Xinda Alliance Commercial Management is likely to be a platform created by Wanda to introduce new strategic investment and hit the IPO again.
After experiencing Jedi life again and again, will the former richest man who refuses to admit defeat always have a way? When will you wait until the next time you hear Wang Jianlin sing at Wanda's annual meeting?