China’s Wanda Completes Exit From Film Studios and Theme Parks

By Patrick Frater

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Dalian Wanda has completed its exit from the domestic Chinese theme park business by selling its parks management companies to property developer Sunac for $900 million (RMB6.28 billion). The deal includes operations managing the massive film and TV studios that constructed in Qingdao and 13 the.

The sale of Wanda Cultural Management comes less than three years after Wanda’s chairman Wang Jianlin warned Disney that it would launch a pack of Chinese tigers to defeat Shanghai Disneyland. And it comes barely a year after Wanda sold its theme park businesses and part of its hotel portfolio as part of a massive debt-reduction program.

Sunac last year paid RMB44 billion ($6.31 billion at current exchange rates) to buy the parks and studios. But it left operational control with Wanda Cultural Management.

“The transaction will further clarify the operation management aspect of the cultural and tourism projects acquired by the group and further improve our management efficiency,” Sunac said in a regulatory filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Sunac now has the right to rebrand the parks and studios.

Wanda has been forced into retreat across many of its business sectors. It was recently announced that U.S. finance firm Silverlake was to buy a substantial portion of Wanda’s stake in U.S. movie theater group AMC. It has also been reported that Wanda is negotiating to sell its stake in Legendary Entertainment, the Hollywood producer that it bought in 2016 for up to $3.5 billion.