Relief or "bottom fishing"? Four insurance companies have acquired 15 Wanda assets this year

NCI (601336.SH) has taken over another Wanda asset.

According to Tianyancha information, industrial and commercial changes have occurred at Wanda Plaza in Chifeng and Jinjiang, with the original wholly-owned shareholder Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group (hereinafter referred to as "Wanda Commercial Management") exiting the shareholder sequence in mid-December, and Kunhua (Tianjin) Equity Investment Partnership (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjin Kunhua") being added as the wholly-owned shareholder.

The major shareholder of Tianjin Kunhua is NCI.

In January of this year, NCI jointly established a fund with CICC Capital Operations to directly or indirectly invest in enterprises holding real estate project assets.

The two hold 99.99% and 0.01% equity in Tianjin Kunhua with subscription amounts of 9.999 billion yuan and 1 million yuan, respectively.

From the current industrial and commercial information, "holding-type real estate" mainly refers to assets under Wanda.

Tianyancha information shows that Tianjin Kunhua has currently obtained controlling rights over Wanda projects in six locations: Beijing, Yantai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Chifeng, and Jinjiang.

The largest, Nanjing Wanda Plaza, has a registered capital of up to 1.442 billion yuan, while the recently acquired Wanda Plazas in Chifeng and Jinjiang have registered capitals of 418 million yuan and 99 million yuan, respectively.

In the past year, news regarding Wanda's liquidity issues has been constant.

By the end of December 2023, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, under Wanda Commercial Management, faced its fourth material expiration since it first submitted documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2021.

As Wanda Commercial Management struggled with a 30 billion yuan repurchase pressure, "white knight" PAG Group (hereinafter referred to as "PAG Group") brought a new agreement.

It is reported that PAG Investment will join other investors to reinvest in Zhuhai Commercial Management, after which Wanda Commercial Management will maintain a single largest shareholder status with a 40% shareholding, while PAG Group and several existing and new investors will collectively hold 60%.

In March 2024, Wanda Commercial Management announced that it had officially signed an agreement with PAG Group and five other institutions, with these five institutions investing 60 billion yuan in Dalian Xindameng Commercial Management (hereinafter referred to as "Xindameng"), while acquiring 60% equity in the company.

In the industrial and commercial changes that took place six months later, Xindameng introduced a total of 10 new shareholders, including the aforementioned five institutions, with registered capital increasing from 16.21 billion yuan to 40.52 billion yuan.

However, Wanda Commercial Management's pressure does not stop there.

As early as January 2018, Tencent Holdings, as the initiator, along with Suning.com, Sunac, and JD.com, invested 34 billion yuan in Wanda Commercial (the renamed Wanda Commercial Management Group), acquiring 14% of the shares introduced by investors during its H-share delisting.

This also included a betting agreement.

It is reported that this agreement requires Wanda Commercial to complete its listing by October 31, 2023; it cannot change its main business, and the net rental income in 2019 must not be less than 19 billion yuan In October and December 2024, Suning.com and Sunac have respectively filed arbitration against Wanda Group with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, involving amounts of 5.041 billion yuan and 9.5 billion yuan.

Perhaps due to a liquidity crisis, Wanda's entanglement with insurance funds is becoming increasingly tight.

At the end of 2023, when Wanda Commercial Management's Hong Kong stocks were hit, there were market rumors that Wanda planned to sell its plazas in first- and second-tier cities to obtain liquidity and was negotiating with insurance institutions.

Subsequently, there have been frequent changes in the industrial and commercial registrations of Wanda's assets being taken over by insurance funds.

In December alone, there were equity changes in four Wanda assets located in Jinshan, Shanghai; Taicang, Jiangsu; and Huzhou, Zhejiang, with new wholly-owned shareholders traceable to Sunshine Insurance.

Even the investment by Taiping Group in 2024 did not interrupt Wanda's pace of asset disposals.

After the new investment in Nanjing Wanda Plaza, the registered capital was significantly increased from 100 million yuan to 1.442 billion yuan; but less than a month later, Wanda Commercial Management exited the shareholder list, with Tianjin Kunhua taking over.

At the beginning of December, the registered capital of Chifeng Wanda Plaza was significantly increased from 50 million yuan to 418 million yuan; in the same month, the shareholder changed again from Wanda Commercial Management to Tianjin Kunhua.

Coincidentally, on the same day that Chifeng Wanda Plaza changed ownership, Sunac officially announced that it was "chasing debts" from Wanda.

It appears that liquidity needs may be the reason Wanda Commercial Management is ruthlessly "letting go" of many assets; however, for insurance funds, whether this is a rescue or "bottom-fishing" may depend more on the price of the acquired assets.

Currently, Wanda has layouts in multiple cities across the country, and purchasing at a low price not only provides holding period returns but also anticipates appreciation after the market rebounds, which is beneficial for diversified investment and risk dispersion.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently four insurance companies, including NCI, Sunshine Insurance, Dajia Insurance, and Hengqin Life, that have taken over 15 Wanda Plaza projects.

Among them, Sunshine Insurance holds Wanda assets in six locations: Hefei, Taicang, Huzhou, Jinshan in Shanghai, and Luogang in Guangzhou through Lishui Lianrong No. 1 Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership);

Dajia Insurance holds Wanda assets in three locations, and Dajia Insurance and Hengqin Life jointly hold one Wanda asset.

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