In China’s second-largest property deal to date, Dalian Wanda Group agreed to sell $9.3B worth of hotels and theme park assets to Sunac China Holdings, headed by billionaire Sun Hongbin. Sunac will grab 76 hotels and buy a 91% stake in 13 theme parks, Bloomberg reports.
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The deal took many by surprise as Wanda Group made little to no indication that it was looking to offload such high-ticket items. Last year the company’s founder and the richest man in China, Wang Jianlin, was boasting about his chain of theme parks and their ability to take on Shanghai Disney Resort — which opened last June.
Wanda Group was one of several Chinese corporations under increased scrutiny due to China’s regulation crackdown. China’s state regulators have asked the country’s banks to provide details on loans to Dalian Wanda, Fosun, HNA and Anbang. According to reports, the government wants to find out how much debt these companies have used to fund massive acquisition sprees and see if they are overleveraged and pose a threat to the financial system.
“For Sunac, the deal signifies a move into hotels from primarily property development it focused on before,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kristy Hung told Bloomberg. “Sunac could be seeking more exposure outside of just purely property development, as growth of Chinese new home sales will likely slow in the long run.”
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