Wanda Hotel shares soar on US$1 billion acquisition deal

BEIJING: Shares in Wanda Hotel, a Hong Kong-listed arm of troubled Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda, soared yesterday after it announced plans to buy more than US$1 billion in assets from firms controlled by group chairman Wang Jianlin.

The major restructuring plan will see Wanda Hotel Development acquire Wanda Travel – which is focused on theme parks – for 6.3 billion yuan (US$940 million), and Wanda Hotel Management for 750 million yuan.

The group has diversified rapidly in recent years from commercial property into entertainment, theme parks, sports and other sectors, and is now reportedly facing difficulty paying off debts run up in the wake of the series of massive, high-profile foreign acquisitions.

Wanda Hotel stock was up more than 20 per cent Thursday morning at HK$1.41 (18 cents) following the restructuring announcement.

The moves are the latest in a wider shake-up of Wang’s Dalian Wanda Group now under scrutiny by Chinese authorities.

Last month, Dalian Wanda announced it was selling off 76 hotels and nearly of all its holdings in 13 other tourism-related projects to developer Sunac China Holdings for US$9.3 billion in what Bloomberg News said was China’s largestever property deal.

It was reported in July authorities plan to squeeze the conglomerate by cutting off new loans and regulatory approvals for deals, in a punishment for breaching restrictions on overseas investments. — AFP