Billionaire Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group sells Chicago tower as it continues to trim multibillion-dollar debt
- Wanda Hotel, a unit of Wanda Group, is selling the uncompleted Vista Tower to Chicago-based Magellan Parcel
- Sale of 101-storey residential-cum-hotel development to yield a net gain of US$12.1 million
The sale will generate a net gain of HK$94 million (US$12.1 million), it added, and hand Magellan Parcel full ownership of the luxury residential-cum-hotel currently under construction in Chicago.
The disposal will help reduce the current and future indebtedness of the group, the company said in the filing. Wanda bought the Chicago site in 2014 and planned to invest US$900 million on the project comprising 393 condominium units and 192 hotel rooms.
Wanda Group had total debts of nearly 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) at the end of March, including 12 billion yuan in short-term nature, according to the latest report by local rating agency, China Chengxin International Credit Rating.
Meanwhile its flagship unit, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group, which manages core assets including hotels, shopping malls and other properties, had total debts of 297.9 billion yuan as of end of 2019, more than four times its cash and cash equivalents, according to the company’s filing in April this year.
Shares of Wanda Hotel Development surged as much as 88 per cent to HK$0.50 on Thursday after trading resumed following a three-day suspension pending the announcement.
The sale is the property-to-entertainment conglomerate’s latest move to offload its assets after being placed on a watch list by Chinese regulators in April 2017. In the previous few years, Wanda had made highly leveraged acquisitions around the world including snapping up assets from Hollywood studios, luxury hotels and high-profile buildings in the US to European football clubs.
