Wang Jianlin’s New Direction： ＂Abandon the Heavy and Reduce the Light＂, Reconstructing the Cultural Tourism Map
Image source: ICphoto
Although there is still uncertainty about the listing at the end of the year, it has not affected the normal operations within Wanda Group.
Blue Whale Finance found through the official website of Wanda Group that since the beginning of this year, Wanda Group Chairperson Wang Jianlin has led a team to reconstruct the cultural tourism map in many places across the country, and has signed strategic cooperation with the governments of Luoyang, Henan, Deyang, Sichuan, Zhangjiajie, Shanxi Datong, Yichun, Heilongjiang, and other places to cooperate around the cultural tourism industry.
On August 3 this year, Wanda Group announced through its official website that it would rename its Wanda Cultural Group to Wanda Cultural Tourism Group. Blue Whale Finance recently learned from people close to Wanda that, unlike previous cultural tourism projects, the future Wanda Cultural Tourism will "abandon the weight and lighten the weight". Like Wanda Plaza, asset-light cultural tourism is the main direction.
Restart the cultural tourism industry
According to Wanda Group’s official website, Wanda currently includes business management groups, cultural tourism groups and investment groups. Among them, the business sectors of the cultural tourism group, in addition to film and television, sports, and baby king, there are also four cultural tourism projects and cultural tourism planning and design institutes. The four cultural tourism projects are Changbai Mountain International Resort, Wuhan Central Cultural District, Lanzhou Wanda City, and Yan’an Red Street.
The above-mentioned sources told Blue Whale Finance that Wanda Cultural Tourism is a business sector that Wang Jianlin has always wanted to do. After selling Wanda Cultural Tourism to Sunac, Wanda has not stopped expanding its cultural tourism projects.
In February this year, Wanda established a comprehensive strategic cooperative relationship with Luoyang, and took the Longmen Tourist Resort project in Luoyang as the first major cooperation project. On April 10, Wanda signed a contract with Sichuan Deyang for the Sanxing Lake Wanda five-star hot spring resort hotel and international cultural tourism project. On April 12, Zhangjiajie Tourism Group announced that it signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Wanda, and the two sides will cooperate on the Dayong Ancient City project. In June, Wanda signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with the Datong Municipal Government and Datong Cultural Tourism Investment Group respectively, mainly on the cooperation of Datong Ancient City. In August, Wanda signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Yichun Municipal Government and Yichun Sengong Group to plan in-depth cooperation in the cultural tourism industry and other fields.
In addition, since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has led a team to visit many places and exchanged discussions with local governments, including Pinggu District, Beijing, Changchun, Jilin, Libo County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou, and Suqian, Jiangsu. This year’s August-September is particularly concentrated.
According to the official website of the Yichun Municipal Government, on August 16 this year, Sui Hongbo, Secretary of the Yichun Municipal Party Committee, met with Wang Jianlin, Chairperson of Dalian Wanda Group, and the two sides exchanged ideas on cooperation in cultural tourism and other fields. Wang Jianlin said that Wanda will give full play to the successful experience in the development of the cultural tourism industry accumulated over the years. Relying on Yichun’s valuable resources and the upcoming high-speed rail era, it will actively plan for cooperation between the two sides, strengthen planning and design on the "ice and snow", and do a good job in innovative articles.
According to the official website of the Beijing Pinggu District Government, on August 26 this year, Pinggu District and Wanda Group held a symposium. Tang Hailong, Secretary of the Pinggu District Party Committee, hoped that Wanda would actively participate in the construction of the "Pingyu dual-use" rural revitalization Jinhai Lake core area. Wang Jianlin said that Wanda would give full play to its own advantages in cultural tourism, hotel operations, etc., and select a representative, exemplary and leading project group as soon as possible to study and formulate a planned operation plan to help the construction of the "Pinggu dual-use" core area with practical actions.
According to the official website of the Suqian Municipal Government, on September 5 this year, Chen Zhongwei, Secretary of the Suqian Municipal Party Committee, met with Wang Jianlin, Chairperson of Wanda Group, and Wang Jianlin said that Wanda Group will give full play to its own advantages, rely on Suqian’s superior ecological resources, and further increase cooperation in areas such as cultural tourism.
"Cultural tourism industry" is a common keyword mentioned by local governments and Wanda.
Wanda Tourism Industry was established in October 2013 and belongs to Wanda Culture Group. In 2014, Wanda Tourism revenue was only 7.50 billion yuan, but by 2016, Wanda Tourism revenue had reached 17.43 billion yuan, an increase of nearly 40% year-on-year.
Wanda’s tourism brand "Wanda City" has not only opened one after another across the country, but also began to enter overseas, signing two large-scale cultural tourism projects in India and Paris in 2016. Wang Jianlin said at the time that by 2025, 25 Wanda Cities will be opened worldwide, of which 5 will be opened overseas. "First, it is possible to gradually accumulate and become a leading brand in terms of business scale."
However, in 2017, due to financial problems, Wanda transferred 91% of the shares of 13 cultural and tourism projects to Sunac for 43.844 billion yuan, which was called "M & A of the Century".
It was the industry consensus at the time that Wanda would give up the cultural tourism industry, but Wanda said in a subsequent statement: "As China’s earliest pioneer in the cultural tourism industry, Wanda has always been optimistic about the development prospects of China’s cultural tourism industry. In the future, Wanda will continue to invest in the cultural tourism industry. Its cultural tourism group (including planning, construction and project management departments) will continue to be an important industrial group of Wanda for sustainable development."
Wanda said that it will continue to invest in the cultural tourism industry in the future, retain the backbone team of the cultural tourism industry, and reorganize the Cultural Tourism Planning Institute, Cultural Tourism Construction Center, and Cultural Tourism Management Company.
From the start of the Changbai Mountain cultural tourism project a decade ago, Wanda has never given up its ambition to expand the cultural tourism industry. The above-mentioned person familiar with the matter said that, unlike the previous "land acquisition-development" asset-heavy model, Wanda’s future cultural tourism industry will be mainly asset-light operation. "The land is still owned by the local government, and Wanda only manages and operates and exports brands."
It is reported that Wanda Neijiang Cultural Tourism City, located in Sichuan, is scheduled to open at the end of this year and will become an important tourist destination in Chengdu and Chongqing and a new business card for Neijiang City.
Whether it will go public at the end of the year is still up in the air
For enterprises, the asset-light model will undoubtedly greatly reduce the pressure on capital.
According to Wanda’s official website, as of December 31, 2022, 473 Wanda plazas have been opened across the country, and Blue Whale Finance has learned that half of them are asset-light projects. In addition, at the end of this month, Beijing will open two more Wanda plazas at the same time, both of which are asset-light projects.
On August 31, Wanda Commercial Management disclosed that the interim report of corporate bonds showed that the operating income in the first half of 2023 was 25.452 billion yuan, an increase of 4.30% year-on-year; the gross profit margin was 64.63%, an increase of 1.53 percentage points year-on-year.
Among them, the hotel operating business revenue rose the most significantly, up 103.84% year-on-year, with gross profit margin increasing by 17.67 percentage points. Other business revenue rose 3.05%, and gross profit margin increased by 2.1 percentage points.
Wanda Commercial Management plans to spin off the listed subsidiary Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management’s total assets are 22.886 billion yuan, net assets are 7.233 billion yuan, the operating income during the reporting period is 27.12 billion yuan, and the main business profit is 12.984 billion yuan.
The net cash flow generated by Wanda Commercial Management’s operating activities in the first half of the year was 11.852 billion yuan, an increase of 41.6% year-on-year. The balance of cash and cash equivalents as of the end of the first half of the year was 14.692 billion yuan. As of the end of the first half of the year, Wanda Commercial Management’s consolidated interest-bearing liabilities were 141.283 billion yuan, of which the interest-bearing liabilities due within one year were 29.257 billion yuan.
After experiencing a period of debt repayment pressure, Wanda also ushered in good news. On September 12, a domestic debt "200,000 01" repo bond owned by Wanda Commercial Management has been repaid. The repo payment amount is 3.79 billion yuan, which is close to the full repurchase.
According to the announcement of Wanda Commercial Management, the bond code 175119, the issuance scale is 3.80 billion yuan, the bond maturity is 5 (3 + 2) years, the coupon rate is 5.58%, the issuance start date is September 7, 2020, and the maturity date is September 9, 2025 9 (postponed in case of holidays), but in the third year, that is, when it expires in 2023, the issuer has the option to adjust the coupon rate and the investor’s right to sell back.
The person close to Wanda said that after the completion of the bond sale and payment, Wanda Commercial Management has no public overseas debt maturity risk this year. "Wanda’s business model is very clear, the return on assets is expected to further improve, and there is little pressure on public market debt in the next few years."
However, whether Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management can go public smoothly at the end of this year remains unresolved and remains the biggest hurdle facing Wanda.