Wanda Sports Group, a subsidiary of Chinese multinational conglomerate Wanda Group, announced on Friday it has reached a deal with American company Advance Publications to sell IRONMAN Group for 730 million U.S dollars.

IRONMAN was one of three core companies that formed Wanda Sports Group. The other two are Infront Sports & Media and Wanda Sports (China).

After the transaction, the IRONMAN will be co-invested by Advance Publications and Orkila Capital, a growth equity firm.

The deal is expected to be finished in the second quarter of 2020 if all procedures can be finished and meet requirements of relevant authorities. Wanda Sports says it will use the money to pay back loans and other fees, which include the principal amount of 230 million U.S. dollars and related interest and fees outstanding under Credit Suisse facility and the 50 million U.S dollars outstanding under a promissory note issued to Wanda Sports & Media (Hong Kong) Holding.

But Wanda Sports Group has managed to gain an exclusive license to continue to operate the series of IRONMAN running events in China, including IRONMAN® and IRONMAN® 70.3® triathlon series, Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series® and Epic Series® off-road mountain bike series races.

Wanda Sports Group's stock price at Nasdaq rose significantly after the selling news was announced on Thursday. After getting listed in July 2019, the company's performance at the stock market has not been satisfactory.

The company's loss in the third quarter of 2019 was 31.2 million euros (34 million U.S. dollars), compared to a profit of 13.1 million in the third quarter of 2018. The company said it was affected by stock-based compensation expenses, the IPO-related costs and the financing costs.

Wanda Sports Group purchased IRONMAN for 650 million U.S. dollars in August 2015, which was a major headline in the sports world and demonstrated the positive development of China's sports industry since 2014.

Now, with the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the world and the Chinese and the global sports world affected by the disease, the sale of IRONMAN Group casts a shadow on the development of Chinese sports industry.