Wanda Hotel Development plans to buy theme park and hotel management businesses from other parts of the Dalian Wanda Group.
Wanda Hotel Development is a Hong Kong-listed unit of China’s vast yet beleaguered Dalian Wanda group. Dalian Wanda claims the reshuffle will make Wanda Hotel an offshore “strategic platform.”
The regulatory filing was made late last night. Wanda Hotel Development announced it would pay $926 million (RMB6.3 billion) to Wanda Culture to buy Wanda Travel. Wanda Culture is owned privately by Dalian Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin. The company is predominantly involved in theme park design, construction and operation management.
In addition, Wanda Hotel Development will pay a further $110 million (RMB750 million) to Dalian Wanda Commercial, for Wanda Hotel Management. Its business is hotel design, construction and management.
In the third part of the manoeuvre, Wanda Hotel Development will sell Wang its interests in four property companies for an undisclosed sum. These companies are currently working on developments in London, Chicago, Australia and Guilin, China.
“Wanda Hotel Development will become a strategic platform as Wanda group’s Hong Kong-listed company focusing on theme park and hotel operation and management,” announced the company.
It appears that Wanda Hotel Development will now manage the hotels and theme parks that Dalian Wanda is in the process of selling off.
Last month the company announced it was selling its tourism and theme park businesses to Sunac, another property developer. The aim was to slash group borrowings.
A revised deal showed that the Qingdao film studios comprise part of the disposal. However Dalian Wanda aims to retain a nine percent ownership in the leisure businesses. It also claims a similar stake in a portfolio of 77 hotels to be sold to R&F Properties, another property developer. Although there will be a change in overall ownership, the parks and hotels will still be branded as Wanda properties.
Wanda Hotel Development’s shares were suspended yesterday. They will resume trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today.
Image courtesy of Dalian Wanda.
https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/china-wanda-shuffles-theme-park-hotel-assets-1202521561/
