Wanda to sell five overseas assets for $5 bln: Report

World
Europe

Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, once an aggressive overseas assets buyer, is planning another big sell-off.

The South China Morning Post, citing an anonymous source, reported on Friday that Dalian Wanda was disposing of its five large-scale development projects in the UK, the US and Australia.

Wanda has approached potential investors to seek a buyer who can acquire all of the projects for at least five billion US dollars, which is the cost paid by Wanda, the sources said, according to the report.

The selling plan is not Wanda’s first move to offload its assets this year.

The group sold most of its hotels and tourism portfolio for about 9.3 billion US dollars in July. It claimed the selling is to “fully exercise the competitive industrial advantage,” but media reports said the offloading may be the result of debt pressure.

The five for-sale projects include One Nine Elms in London, a two-tower building of 439 apartments and a five-star hotel.

Wanda acquired the London project, which is currently under construction, from UK-based Green Property for one billion dollars in 2013.

The selling list also includes Wanda Vista Tower, Chicago’s third-tallest building to-be when completed in 2020, and One Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.

Two projects in Australia, One Circular Quay in Sydney and Jewel Resort on the Gold Coast, are also on the list.

Considering the high price and operating costs needed for the five under-construction projects, it will be not be easy for Wanda to find a buyer who can afford all the five projects in one go, the report said.

Wanda’s overseas assets selling came about after China increased scrutiny on overseas acquisitions and debt levels this year.

Since July, the authorities have stepped up management of overseas deals and capped outbound investment in property, hotels, entertainment, sports clubs and the film industry.