‘Wanda mulls Hollywood studio sale’
HONG KONG/NEW YORK: China’s Dalian Wanda Group is exploring a partial sale of its Hollywood film studio and the full sale of its sports assets in its latest push to reduce offshore holdings under pressure from Beijing, said sources familiar with the matter.
Deals for the assets would essentially reduce the conglomerate’s overseas holdings to a handful of property developments — also reported to be on the block, according to The Real Deal, a United States property news website.
The company, led by billionaire Wang Jianlin, once had dreams of developing a China-Hollywood film nexus, had a stake in topflight Spanish football club Atletico Madrid and owned prime property developments in Sydney and London.
Wanda paid US$3.5 billion (RM14.61 billion) in early 2016 for Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment, maker of “Pacific Rim” and “The Great Wall”.
It is now exploring the sale of a minority stake, said two sources with direct knowledge, similar to Wanda’s recent stake sale in AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest cinema operator, a two-part deal that ostensibly gave US private equity group Silver Lake a stake of up to 22 per cent via convertible bonds and saw Wanda give up majority control.
New management at Legendary Entertainment has helped clean up its balance sheet and boosted its pipeline of TV and film content, said one of the sources.
Wanda said that the report of the sales were “seriously inconsistent with the facts”.
Wanda is also considering the sale of its sports marketing firm Infront Sports & Media as well as World Triathlon Corp — owner of the Ironman Triathlons — said the people, cautioning the plans are not final and could change.