Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, which is pinning Wanda’s hope of breaking through,Submitted prospectuses to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange four times, although it focuses on an asset-light business management model, it is difficult to completely divest itself of real estate attributes and is superimposed on multiple factors such as parent company debt and gambling pressure.It has never been able to open the door to the capital market.

It is difficult to say that Wang Jianlin faces an easy road ahead. With debts growing bigger and bigger, can Wang Jianlin take over this time to stabilize the situation?Will Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management launch a fifth attack on the capital market to fulfill Wang Jianlin’s lifelong wish? The answer lies in time.

01

The founder “takes charge” and the veterans return to the table

Wanda Commercial Management, formerly known as Wanda Commercial, was once the core asset platform in Wang Jianlin’s commercial territory. Wanda Plazas, hotels, and cultural tourism projects were all grouped under this entity.

From 2007 to 2012, Wang Jianlin personally served as the chairman of Wanda CommercialIn 2012, Wang Jianlin stepped down from this position, and Ding Benxi, who had long been the president of Wanda Group, took over as chairman. During the seven years that Ding Benxi was at the helm, Wanda Commercial completed a complete capital cycle of Hong Kong stock listing, privatization and delisting.

In 2019, Ding Benxi resigned, and Qi Jie, Xiao Guangrui, Zhang Chunyuan and others took over successively.In June 2026, Chen Hongtao just became the new chairman, but he only sat in this position for more than four months.Now this top spot has finally returned to Wang Jianlin’s hands.

However, this industrial and commercial change did not change the legal representative.After stepping down as chairman, Chen Hongtao continued to serve as the company’s legal representative, manager, and director, and he was still responsible for daily operations and management.. Chen Hongtao is 56 years old. He joined Wanda in 2000 and has served as the general manager of the Chengdu regional company, the general manager of the West China and Southwest Operations Center, and the general manager of the Business Planning Center. From March 2021 to May 2026, he served as the executive president of Ruyi Film Entertainment. He is currently also the chairman of the board of directors of Wanda Hotel Development and the president of Beijing Wanda Cultural Tourism Industry Group.

This industrial and commercial change is not an isolated change of leadership. On the same day, Wanda Commercial Management’s financial director was changed from Xu Chengning to Zhao Hao. Among the directors, Zhang Chunyuan, He Qicong, Huang Guobin, Du Qingchun and other “Wanda system” veterans returned to the board of directors. Liu Mingshi, an old employee, became the chairman of the supervisory board. Huang Guobin resigned from the board of directors and Wang Jianlin joined the board.From the person in charge of finance to directors and supervisors, multiple key positions were collectively adjusted on the same day.

Bai Wenxi, Vice Chairman of China Enterprise Capital Alliance, said,Professional manager Chen Hongtao continues to be responsible for daily operations, and founder Wang Jianlin personally sits on the board of directors. This is a typical combination of “centralization + division of labor” for enterprises in a period of contraction. The deep intention behind it is to provide the highest level of credit endorsement for Wanda’s debt disposal and strategic investment coordination.

他表示，The core reason for Wang Jianlin’s return is that Wanda is in a critical window of debt disposal and asset restructuring, and the founder himself needs to assume more important coordination and decision-making responsibilities.

Zhang Bo, director of 58 Anjuke Research Institute, told the media:“Wang Jianlin took over as chairman of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group after 14 years. This may be a consideration for the company to enter the stage of debt resolution and optimization of existing operations.”Frequent changes in management are not conducive to the advancement of asset disposal and debt negotiation. In this process, the company needs to connect with multiple parties such as investors, creditors, local partners, and regulatory agencies. Wang Jianlin’s return as chairman will help improve decision-making efficiency and help the company get out of trouble.

Wang Jianlin sat back on the chair, but behind him was the continued pressure to resolve debt.

02

More than 80 Wanda Plazas have been sold,

Wang Jianlin “survived with a broken arm”?

In December 2014, Wanda Commercial was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and was one of the largest IPOs in Hong Kong that year., but on the first day of listing, the stock price fell below the issue price. More than a year later, the valuation given by Hong Kong stocks has never satisfied Wang Jianlin.

On September 20, 2016, Wanda Commercial was delisted from the Hong Kong stock market, but the privatization offer required a huge amount of funds to be paid., Wanda signed an agreement with investors and promised that if it fails to be listed on the A-share market by the end of August 2018, it will repurchase all equity and pay an annual interest of 10-12%.

Seeing that the deadline is approaching, the A-share listing channel has not yet been opened. On January 29, 2018, Wanda Commercial introduced four strategic investors, Tencent, Suning, JD.com, and Sunac, to acquire the 14% shares held by investors when it was delisted in Hong Kong for 34 billion yuan, and formed a new listing commitment arrangement, stipulating that if the listing is not completed by October 31, 2023, investors have the right to claim that Wanda repurchases shares at a premium. Interestingly, whether this arrangement can be regarded as a bet with mandatory effect later became a point of dispute in the arbitration tribunal.

In 2018, Wanda Commercial changed its name to Dalian Wanda Commercial Management and announced its withdrawal from the real estate development business and its transformation into commercial management. However, the door to A-shares has still not been opened. In March 2021, Wanda Commercial withdrew its A-share IPO application. In the same year,Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. was established, and Wanda incorporated the commercial operations of Wanda Plazas across the country., and then introduced 22 institutions including PAG, CITIC Capital, Tencent, and Country Garden. The investors obtained about 21.17% of the shares. Wanda received a total of about 38 billion yuan in Pre-IPO investment and signed an agreement.

In the first half of 2023, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management’s fourth IPO application was suspended. As the listing has been repeatedly stranded, the price of the gamble is being realized in the form of law and cash.

On April 14, 2026, Yonghui Supermarket stated that it had received the final award from the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission: Regarding the dispute over the equity transfer of Wanda Commercial Management, the arbitration tribunal supported all of Yonghui’s core demands. It not only required the counterparty to pay the remaining equity transfer amount of 3.639 billion yuan, but also required to bear an accelerated maturity liquidated damages of approximately 218 million yuan, as well as attorney fees, preservation fees and other related expenses, totaling more than 3.857 billion yuan.Wang Jianlin bears joint and several liability for the above-mentioned debts.

besides,In October 2024, Suning.com initiated arbitration and requested that Wanda pay 5.04 billion yuan in share repurchase payments.However, in July 2025, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission made a ruling and did not support Suning.com’s arbitration request;Sunac China also initiated arbitration in December 2024, requesting the payment of 9.5 billion yuan in share repurchase payments. The case is still under review.

As of the end of 2025, Wanda Commercial Management’s total liabilities are approximately 299-320 billion yuan, and Wanda Group’s total liabilities are approximately 600 billion yuan, of which the short-term debt repayment gap is approximately 28.4-52.9 billion yuan. According to Fitch data, as of the end of June 2026, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management had unrestricted cash of 4.6 billion yuan and short-term debt of 33 billion yuan.

Since 2023, Wanda has sold more than 80 Wanda Plazas.In May 2025, 48 seats were packaged and sold to the Taimeng Group for a consideration of about 50 billion yuan; the hotel management business was sold to Tongcheng Travel for about 2.5 billion yuan; the equity of Kuaiqian Financial was transferred to China Ruyi for 240 million yuan; in February 2026, Shanghai Zhuanqiao Wanda Plaza was sold for 2.048 billion yuan.

The road ahead is still hard to say easy,Existing debt is still being slowly digested, new financing costs remain high, and investors’ demands still require continued negotiation., 72-year-old Wang Jianlin seems to have reached the time when he has to return to the front line.

03

“Big ups and downs” Wang Jianlin

In 2016, Wang Jianlin topped Forbes’ list of China’s richest people with a net worth of approximately US$33 billion (approximately more than 200 billion yuan). In the 2016 Hurun Rich List, Wang Jianlin’s family ranked first with a wealth of 215 billion, making Wang Jianlin the veritable richest man in China.

That year, he casually said in an interview with Lu Yu:“First set a small goal that is achievable. For example, I will earn 100 million first.”, instantly flooded the Internet. At that time, Wanda’s territory was spread all over the world, with cultural tourism, hotels, film and television, and sports flourishing, and it held hundreds of Wanda Plazas.

As of 2026, on the “Hurun Rich List”, Wang Jianlin’s family wealth is only 10 billion, ranking 771st.

On September 26, 2025, Wang Jianlin was issued a high consumption restriction order due to the implementation of a 186 million yuan cultural tourism project under Wanda. The high consumption restriction information was quietly revoked 36 hours later., Wanda Group insiders responded to multiple media: “This is due to an economic dispute between Wanda’s affiliated project companies. In fact, the two parties have been negotiating and resolving it through various methods before. We are also learning about the specific situation. This (height limit) may be caused by information asymmetry at the execution level.”

Now that 72-year-old Wang Jianlin has returned to the position of chairman of Wanda Commercial Management, the first question many people have is not when Wanda will return to its peak, butAfter rounds of asset liquidations, equity transfers, and gambling settlements, what is left in Wang Jianlin’s hands?

What needs to be clarified is thatDalian Wanda Commercial Management, where Wang Jianlin took over as chairman, is not Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, which operates Wanda Plaza.Dalian Wanda Commercial Management only holds 40% of the equity of Dalian New Development Alliance, the holding platform of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management; as early as March 2024, after PAG Investment, CITIC Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala and other institutions completed a capital injection of approximately 60 billion yuan, 60% of the controlling stake in Dalian New Development Alliance was transferred to a consortium led by PAG.

As of December 31, 2025, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management exclusively operates 529 Wanda Plazas that have been opened, and its business has been launched in 230 cities across the country, covering all provinces.Among these 529 plazas, the property rights of more than 470 have been owned by third-party investors. Although the property rights have been transferred, the exclusive operation rights, brand usage rights, and investment management rights are all undertaken by Wanda Commercial Management.In other words, even if the control rights at the equity level are handed over, this “rent collection machine” is still making money.

It’s just that this income is no longer the business of holding the property and pocketing the rent in the early years.The investor holds the property rights and bears the risks of financing interest, asset depreciation, and depreciation; Wanda exports its team and system, and the source of income becomes management fees and net income sharing.

Compared with book tangible assets, Wanda’s most special trump card is its brand and business operation system. This is not a fixed asset on a report, nor a simple marketing concept, but an executive team composed of tens of thousands of operating personnel, a resource library of chain brand merchants accumulated over many years, and brand negotiation capabilities.These elements themselves have no independent transaction consideration, and the only channel for value realization is to continue to obtain entrusted operation contracts.As long as this operating network can continue to generate positive cash flow, “Wanda Plaza” will still be an effective traffic sign in offline commerce. This ship, which has stripped away heavy assets, will still have the confidence to continue sailing forward.

Wang Jianlin once mentioned this sentence in a media interview: “Excellent companies should plan for bad times when they are good, and make good arrangements for bad times.”

Now that he has personally returned to the position of chairman of Wanda Commercial Management, can this debt settlement, which has lasted for several years, usher in a turn for the better? Will Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management hit the capital market for the fifth time? Can Wang Jianlin’s “dream of going public” come true?

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