Wanda responded to ＂Wang Sicong signed a cultural tourism business＂! Father and son join hands to enter the cultural tourism industry

Dressed in a gray knitted sweater and blue and white sneakers, Wang Sicong, dressed in casual clothes, stood out among the crowd in suits and ties.

Recently, Wang Sicong, as the chairperson of Beijing Huanju Business Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huanju Business Management), met with the main leaders of Tai’an City, Shandong Province, and signed a cooperation agreement on the Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center project. In the past, Wang Sicong’s industries were mainly in the pan-entertainment industry. This signing means that he will enter the cultural tourism industry, which overlaps with the business of Wanda Group.

Outside speculation: Will Wang Sicong take over?

The front foot visited Wanda headquarters, and the back foot signed Wang Sicong?

According to the website of the Tai’an Municipal Government, on the morning of November 27, the signing ceremony of the Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center project was held, and Tai’an Urban Development Investment Co., Ltd. and Huanju Business Management signed a project cooperation agreement. Before the ceremony, Yang Hongtao, Secretary of the Tai’an Municipal Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress, met with Wang Sicong and his party. The two sides held discussions on the integrated development of cultural tourism and sports resources and reached broad consensus.

That night, the WeChat official account "Huanju Business Management Co., Ltd." also released a promotional draft for the contract. The official account was registered on November 13, 2023 and certified as "Huanju Business Management Co., Ltd." on the 16th. This tweet is the first article published by the WeChat official account.

After the news was released, "Huanju Commercial Management signed a contract for Wanda", "Wang Sicong entered the cultural tourism industry", "Wang Sicong officially succeeded Wang Jianlin" and other discussions continued. On the 30th, a relevant person of Wanda Group said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei that Huanju Commercial Management has nothing to do with Wanda, Wang Sicong has been busy with his own business, and he basically does not participate in Wanda’s business.

However, Sino-Singapore Jingwei checked the website of the Tai’an Municipal Government and found that at the end of May this year, Li Lanxiang, deputy secretary of the Tai’an Municipal Party Committee and mayor, visited the headquarters of Wanda Group to discuss with Wanda Group about the cooperation of comrades in charge of the exchange of sports venues. It is unknown whether the "sports venue" referred to in the press release is the Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center, and there is no information on the progress of cooperation between the two parties. Wanda Group has laid out Taishan Wanda Plaza and R & F Wanda Realm Hotel projects in Tai’an.

According to the official website of Tai’an Tourism Economic Development Zone, the total land area of Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center is about 500 mu, with a total construction area of about 355,000 square meters, mainly including stadiums, gymnasiums, swimming pools, and national fitness halls (one and three halls). The total investment of the project is about 3.70 billion yuan. The project breaks the traditional layout model of sports centers and introduces various formats such as commerce, catering, entertainment, culture, sports, and exhibitions to create a new sports and cultural industry complex. According to the news released by the Tai’an Municipal Government Office in October 2021, the main construction of one and three halls has been completed.

WeChat official account "Huanju Business Management Co., Ltd." called the cooperation "stadium renovation project", and combined with the construction of the project, Huanju Business Management undertook the operation of Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center, introducing commercial formats for the project, rather than engineering construction investment.

Less than 5 months after the establishment of the company, father and son joined hands to enter the cultural tourism industry

In the early years, Wang Sicong’s investment fields were mainly games, e-sports, entertainment marketing, sports, film and television and other pan-entertainment sectors. The Pusi Capital controlled by him has successfully invested in listed companies such as Hero Entertainment, Yunyou Holdings, and Fushouyuan. According to public information, Wang Sicong has rarely been involved in the cultural tourism industry in the past.

According to industrial and commercial information, Huanju Business Management is a new company established less than 5 months ago. Tianyancha data shows that Huanju Business Management was established on July 20, 2023, with an approval date of September 18, 2023. It is mainly engaged in business services and has a registered capital of 10 million yuan. The two shareholders of Huanju Business Management are Hangzhou Cup Commercial Management Co., Ltd. and Jiuhuan Real Estate Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd. with a shareholding ratio of 51% and 49% respectively. Further penetration, Wang Sicong and his Pusi Capital have shareholdings in both shareholder companies and are the largest shareholder of Hangzhou Cup Commercial Management Co., Ltd.

In the core management, according to the WeChat official account "Huanju Business Management Co., Ltd.", Wang Sicong is the chairperson of Huanju Business Management, Li Xin is the president, and Ding Yi is the executive president. According to the official account, the company is the only trend entertainment and scene operation company in China that focuses on immersive experience. It has managed assets of more than 6 billion yuan, has more than 70 layout projects, and has more than 100 offline single stores. The business formats cover cultural tourism, business, experiential consumption and night entertainment. The business formats that have been landed include bars, restaurants, zoos, etc., and are helping to carry out the landing of offline stores.

In addition to Wang Sicong, Wang Jianlin is also obsessed with cultural tourism projects. Wanda Group’s cultural tourism industry can be traced back to the Changbai Mountain project in 2009, but as Wanda fell into a liquidity crisis, it sold the cultural tourism project to Sunac and R & F in the "Great Deal of the Century" in 2017. But Wanda has not completely abandoned the cultural tourism business. Lanzhou Wanda City, Yan’an Red Street and other projects have been launched one after another, and Wanda can also be seen in some sports events.

The outside world has noticed that since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has frequently met with government leaders in a number of tourist cities to sign strategic cooperation on cultural tourism projects, such as Luoyang, Zhangjiajie, Datong, Yichun, etc. On August 3 this year, Wanda Group officially renamed its Wanda Cultural Group to Wanda Cultural Tourism Group. According to Wanda, unlike previous cultural tourism projects, Wanda Cultural Tourism has taken the direction of light assets and cultural tourism.

According to Wanda Group’s official website, Wanda Cultural Tourism Group includes film and television, sports, baby king, cultural tourism projects, international hospitals, cultural tourism planning and design institutes, calligraphy and painting collection and other businesses.

Wang Sicong and Wanda are both working on cultural tourism projects this year. Will they cooperate on the Taishan Cultural Tourism Fitness Center project? In this regard, the above-mentioned person of Wanda Group said that they do not have relevant information.

The bet is approaching, and Wang Jianlin is under pressure again

Compared with Wang Sicong’s ups and downs in Shanghai in the past few years, Wang Jianlin is facing a huge test.

As early as 2021, the joint stock company of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group (hereinafter referred to as Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management) has been approved for overseas IPO listing in Hong Kong, commonly known as the "small road". However, after submitting the prospectus four times, there is still no result. Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management last updated the prospectus on June 28, 2023. According to the requirement of updating every six months, it has been less than one month since the prospectus expired.

Wanda has signed a commitment to the listing process with investors, that is, if the listing is not completed by the end of 2023, investors can ask the divestment obligor to buy all or part of the shares that have not been so converted. The total share repurchase payment is about 30 billion yuan. According to a recent report by The Paper, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management intends to postpone its IPO in Hong Kong to 2026 at the latest, and is currently discussing with investors.

The person at Wanda Group told Zhongxin Jingwei that he was unaware of the content of the above report. The listing of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is still "stuck in the road", that is, it needs the approval of the H-share issuance issued by the China Securities Supervision Commission.

On the 30th, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Joint Stock Company announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the deferred repayment plan of a 600 million US dollar bond due in January 2024 has been approved by the bondholders, and the repayment will be adjusted to December 29, 2024. It is planned to be paid off in four installments within one year.

According to Wind data, including the above-mentioned US dollar bonds, Wanda has a total of 3 existing US dollar bonds, and the other two have maturity dates of January 2025 and February 2026, respectively, with a scale of 400 million US dollars and 300 million US dollars; 9 domestic corporate bonds and medium-term notes have a maturity date of March 2024-March 2026, totaling about 6.90 billion yuan.

As of the end of the first half of 2023, the balance of cash and cash equivalents of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management was 14.692 billion yuan, a decrease of 53.44% year-on-year; the consolidated caliber interest-bearing liabilities were 141.283 billion yuan, of which the interest-bearing liabilities due within one year were 29.257 billion yuan.