Wanda Films Limited (Wanda Films) announced on the 17th of February that its shareholder, Shenxian Rongzhi Xingye Management Consultation Center (Limited Partnership), holding over 5% of the company’s shares, plans to reduce its stake by no more than 3%, aiming to cash out 800 million yuan. Industry experts suggest that Wanda Group is facing financial pressure and cannot resort to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
In the disclosure notice titled “Pre-disclosure Announcement of Share Reduction by Shareholders Holding Over 5%” released by Wanda Films on the 17th, it was mentioned that Rongzhi Xingye in Shenxian holds 154,847,229 shares of the company, accounting for 7.3325% of the total share capital. Rongzhi Xingye plans to reduce their stake by a cumulative total of no more than 63,353,361 shares, equivalent to 3.0000% of the total share capital, through centralized bidding and bulk trading within three months of 15 trading days after the date of this announcement.
According to news from the Xiaoxiang Morning Post on February 17th, as of the closing on February 14th, Wanda Films’ stock price was reported at 13.27 yuan per share. If calculated based on the upper limit of the reduction, the expected cashout amount would be around 800 million yuan.
The media reported that according to Tianyancha App, the controlling shareholder of Shenxian Rongzhi is Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd., with Wang Jianlin as its actual controller. Wang Jianlin currently serves as the Chairman and CEO of Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd.
Prior to this, Wang Jianlin had already reduced his stake in Wanda Films, raising over 2 billion yuan. On April 15, 2024, the controlling shareholder of Wanda Films, Beijing Wanda Investment Co., Ltd., changed hands to Shanghai Ruyi Investment Management Co., Ltd., with Ke Liming assuming control.
Wang Jianlin’s frequent sale of assets is primarily aimed at alleviating the financial pressure within the Wanda group.
Data from Tianyancha shows that from December 2024 to January 2025, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. sold controlling stakes in nine subsidiary companies to Kunhua (Tianjin) Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership).
Despite having sold multiple Wanda Plaza projects in the past two years, Wanda’s debt pressure has not diminished.
On October 10, 2024, Yonghui Superstores announced that due to Dalian Yujin’s failure to pay the fourth period equity transfer payment to Wanda Business Management on time, Yonghui Superstores had sent a letter demanding immediate payment and would file for arbitration and hold Dalian Yujin, Wang Jianlin, Sun Xishuang, and other guarantors accountable, involving 3.6 billion yuan.
Subsequently, ST Yigou and Sunac China issued announcements regarding significant arbitrations, requesting that Wanda Group pay the share repurchase amounts of 5.04 billion yuan and 9.5 billion yuan, respectively.
At the same time, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported on the 17th that Wanda Group’s frozen funds totaled nearly 6 billion yuan.
The media quoted market analysts saying that Wanda’s recent actions appear to be a typical example of “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” While such capital shifting may provide temporary relief, it could shake investors and creditors’ confidence in the group’s overall debt repayment ability. Faced with mounting pressures, Wang Jianlin’s maneuvering leeway is decreasing.
On February 17th, Wanda Films’ stock price closed at 11.94 yuan per share, a decrease of 10.02%, hitting the limit down.