Wanda Group

History

The company was founded in Dalian, Liaoning, in 1988 as a residential real estate company by Chinese businessman and investor Wang Jianlin. Incorporated in 1992, the company was "one of the first shareholding companies in the People's Republic of China" after the reform and opening up. The company started to use the name "Wanda" since then. "Wàn" (Chinese: 万) means ten thousand, and "Dá" (Chinese: 达) means to reach or attain. In combination, the company's name is a slogan aspiring to be able to reach everything.

Diversification push

Since 2005, Dalian Wanda and other prominent Chinese real estate companies such as Evergrande have made numerous forays into "alternative, income-generating businesses away from the income-producing Chinese property market." The Financial Times noted that Dalian Wanda was the "most aggressive" company in pursuing this strategy, pointing to its 2012 acquisition of American cinema chain AMC Theatres and 2013 purchase of British yachtmaker Sunseeker. It noted that it was also "building theme parks across China, and has a joint venture with Tencent and Baidu to set up an e-commerce platform".

Dalian Wanda acquired the American cinema operator AMC Theatres in May 2012 for US$2.6 billion, the largest Chinese acquisition of an American company to that date. The acquisition went through successfully in August 2012, making Wanda Cinemas the world's largest cinema operator. As of 2016, Wanda owned approximately 6% of all commercial movie screens in China, and about 13% in the U.S. The company made major changes in AMC theater design and layout, including generously sized reclining seats, waiter service, and expanded food and drink offerings. AMC's value more than doubled in the 18 months following the acquisition, and by the end of 2014 Wanda reaped a reported profit of about US$900 million. As of 2021, Dalian Wanda no longer has control of AMC.

In June 2013, Dalian Wanda planned to invest $1.1 billion to develop a new five-star hotel in London next to the Thames River in Vauxhall, South London, as part of the Nine Elms regeneration. Mayor of London Boris Johnson welcomed this move. The building was said to become "Western Europe's tallest residential building" until plans were scrapped in 2015. In June 2013, Dalian Wanda acquired Sunseeker International, a British luxury yacht manufacturer used in the James Bond movies, for $500 million. This acquisition gave Wanda a 92 percent stake in the company.

In January 2015, Dalian Wanda purchased an office building in Sydney, Australia, from American alternative investment management firm Blackstone Group for around US$327 million. The company is "aggressively expanding overseas to move away from China's property market, which has been hit by a slowing economy". In June 2015, Wanda Cinemas announced that it had acquired Australian cinema chain Hoyts. In Chile it was acquired by Cinépolis, in Uruguay by Life Cinemas, and in Argentina by Cinemark. In November 2015, an announcement was made regarding the formation of a holding company, Wanda Film Holdings, with the purpose of consolidating all of Wanda Group's film-related assets under one entity.

Initial public offering

In December 2014, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, the group's property division, raised $3.7 billion in an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the "most money a real estate company has raised in the public markets." Windfall profits following the IPO made founder Wang Jianlin worth more than $25 billion, effectively making him one of China's richest businessmen and investors.

In 2016, the Wanda Group sought to privatize Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties less than 18 months after the unit's floated listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Standard & Poor was concerned that the move would weaken Wanda Commercial's business transparency.

Sports

On January 20, 2015, it was reported that Wang Jianlin was buying a 20 percent stake in La Liga club Atlético Madrid. The purchase was finalized March 31, 2015, when the company Wanda Madrid Investment, a subsidiary of Dalian Wanda Group, officially become a partial owner of Atlético Madrid after gaining control of 726,707 shares, representing a 20 percent ownership stake of the entire team. The purchase price was valued at €44,983,163.30, or €61.90 per share. The Group sold 17% of its stake to Israeli businessman Idan Ofer on 14 February 2018 for an undisclosed amount.

In February 2015, Dalian Wanda won an auction to purchase Infront Sports & Media, a sports marketing company based in Zug, Switzerland, for $1.2 billion. Infront distributes broadcasting rights for some of the world's biggest sporting events; for example, it had the exclusive sales rights to broadcast FIFA's events from 2015 to 2022, including the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. According to Wang Jianlin himself, "the acquisition is expected to help boost the viability of sports in China as well as to amplify Wanda's visibility and influence in global sports."

In August 2015, Dalian Wanda had acquired World Triathlon Corporation, an American sports promotion company promoting and licensing various triathlon competitions including the Ironman, for $650 million.

In November 2015, it was announced that Dalian Wanda created a sports division within the company, with the purpose of housing the entirety of Wanda Group's portfolio of sports-related assets.

In March 2016, FIFA announced that Wanda would be a major sponsor for international events until 2030. In September of the same year, Wanda Group announced a media and sponsorship deal with Badminton World Federation through its subsidiary, Infront Sports & Media.

In June 2017, the Wanda Group purchased Competitor Group (operator of the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series). Also that year, the company purchased the naming rights for the Estadio de la Comunidad de Madrid, home of association football club Atlético Madrid, which was renamed the Wanda Metropolitano.

In late February 2018, Wanda Group took control of Chinese Super League team Dalian Professional, though the decision was not officially announced. Wanda also signed Yannick Carrasco and Nicolas Gaitan from Atlético Madrid right after selling the club's shares. Wanda Group was also one of the organizers and sponsors of the Tour of Guangxi.

Operations

Wanda Group has its headquarters in the Wanda Plaza (Chinese: 万达广场) in Beijing's Chaoyang District, where it moved in 2009. In May 2015, Dalian Wanda Group announced that it was in the process of relocating its corporate headquarters to Shanghai, which would become the third Chinese city to host the company's headquarters. In 2013, the company's assets totaled 380 billion yuan ($62.8 billion), its annual income reached 186.6 billion yuan ($30.8 billion) and net profits exceeded 12.5 billion yuan ($2.06 billion). In early 2014, Wanda bought the property of One Beverly Hills, and later overcame the exit of its local development partner, as well as bitter objections and lawsuits filed by Israeli-American entrepreneur Beny Alagem, owner of the Beverly Hilton next door. After Wanda came under fire from Beijing regulators in 2017 over its aggressive overseas dealmaking, its local development partner on project One Beverly Hills walked away. Wanda sold this project in 2017. As of December 31, 2016, Dalian Wanda owned 185 Wanda Plazas, 90 hotels, and 3,947 cinema screens throughout China. By January 2017, the Dalian Wanda Group emerged as China's largest film exhibitor, with Shanghai Film Group ranked second.

In July 2017, the Chinese Central Government introduced new measures that bar state-owned banks from providing new loans to private Chinese firms to curb their foreign expansion. According to media reports, the measures were approved directly by General Secretary Xi Jinping. Next to Wanda Group, the measures also targeted HNA Group Co., Anbang Insurance Group as well as Fosun International Ltd. Chairman Wang Jianlin responded by announcing that the company would focus on investing into the domestic market, and sold $9.4 billion worth of assets, including 77 hotels and a 91 percent stake in 13 theme parks to a smaller Chinese competitor.

In October 2018, Dalian Wanda exited the domestic Chinese theme park business by selling off its theme parks and its corresponding management companies to the Chinese property developer Sunac for 6.3 billion yuan (US$900 million).

In addition, the deal encompassed the film and television production studio established by Wanda in Qingdao.

Sponsorships

Since 2011, Dalian Wanda has been the major sponsor of the Chinese Super League football league. From 1994 to 2000, it was the primary sponsor for the Dalian Shide F.C. (then named Dalian Wanda F.C.), during which time the club won four titles in the Chinese top-tier Jia-A League.

The "China's Future Football Stars" project that kicked off in 2013, was being funded by the Wanda Group with an initial phase-I investment of at least 200 million yuan (approximately $32.5 million), the biggest sponsorship in domestic youth sports development since 1949. The program would see 30 young footballers sent to Spain each year for a three-year training program that would consist of football training, as well as education in Spanish language and local culture.

On March 18, 2016, Wanda signed a deal with FIFA to provide sponsorship at the next four World Cup competitions, up until 2030. Although it is still unclear as to how much money has changed hands, and also which Wanda Subsidiaries will be appearing. This deal made Wanda the first Chinese First-Tier FIFA Sponsor. On December 9, 2016, Wanda signed a deal with Atlético Madrid to have the new stadium named after the Wanda Group. The new stadium's name is Wanda Metropolitano. At the time of deal, Wanda Group owned 20% of the Spanish football club.

In September 2019, the IAAF announced in Doha that the Wanda Group would become the title partner of the Diamond League for ten years from 2020. As part of this collaboration, Infront, a Wanda Sports Group company, has signed a five-year agreement with the IAAF and the Diamond League for the international media rights to the elite track and field circuit in 2025.