Dalian Wanda, in a Switch, Sells Assets to 2 Chinese Companies<br />The signing was dominated by the announcement that Sunac would pay $6.5 billion for a 91 percent stake in<br />Wanda’s 13 theme parks across China, while R&F Properties would buy 77 hotels from Wanda for $3 billion.<br />By SUI-LEE WEE and ZHANG TIANTIANJULY 19, 2017<br />BEIJING — Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese conglomerate, tore up a $9.3 billion agreement to sell a portfolio of hotels and theme parks, unexpectedly reaching new deals on the properties<br />that highlighted uncertainty over the financial health of the country’s biggest companies.<br />Wanda had reached an overall agreement with the property firm Sunac China Holdings last week, but Wanda announced at a signing ceremony on Wednesday<br />that it was backtracking and would instead sell just the theme parks to Sunac.<br />The Chinese news media later posted photographs showing that the logo of R&F Properties had been removed from the sign announcing the deal.<br />“If it turns out to be government pressure, it would be typical of what we have been seeing<br />— the government becoming more interventionist in the financial markets,” he said.<br />It is also further evidence that Chinese companies have been under greater official pressure to reduce their piles of loans, because the financial authorities have been alarmed<br />that debt-fueled acquisitions by conglomerates could put the broader Chinese economy at risk.
