Wanda Commercial’s notice stated that based on its strategic research and judgment, it decided to restructure the Company’s resources related to asset-light commercial operations, technology, data and personnel in order to achieve domestic and overseas listing as soon as possible. Therefore, the Company decided to withdraw Wanda Commercial’s A-share IPO application.
In this regard, an industry veteran told China Entrepreneur, “A-shares have not been listed by real estate companies for many years, and now that real estate companies are facing great pressure from regulation and control and a tight financing environment, it is still difficult for real estate companies to be listed in A-shares.”
The source said the A-share market has been nearly 10 years without a real estate company successfully passing an IPO, showing that the regulatory level still has a cautious attitude toward real estate listings, saying, “It’s not that A-shares don’t accept Wanda, it’s that A-shares don’t accept real estate companies.”
According to a March 24 report by China Entrepreneur, in recent years, real estate companies are basically hopeless to go public in the mainland. Mainland real estate companies that have previously submitted materials and been accepted are caught in a long IPO queuing cycle, and the top-ranked real estate company in the A-share listing queue is Wanda Commercial. In addition, Fuli Real Estate and China Evergrande Group have so far failed to complete their A-share listings.
However, in early 2018, Wanda Commercial signed a second betting agreement with strategic investors, agreeing to complete the listing by October 31, 2023. An industry source said, “When Sunac and qq Music took a stake in Wanda in 2018, they were running for a listing, and they always have to give an account to their investors.”
On December 23, 2014, Wanda Commercial was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but Wanda Commercial believes that its market value has suffered serious undervaluation and its share price has been low for a long Time.
In March 2016, Wanda Commercial chose to delist from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while pushing Wanda Commercial back to the A-share listing.
As early as September 2015, Wanda Commercial initiated the listing process for an IPO in A-shares by submitting a prospectus to the Securities Regulatory Commission. At that time, Wanda Commercial’s assets to be listed were mainly malls (including mall management and operation), hotels (including hotel management and operation) and cultural tourism projects, and the company had strong real estate attributes.
In order to be listed on the A-share, Wanda Commercial fully transformed into light assets, and after some adjustments, the main body of Wanda Commercial listing changed from three to one, to a commercial part mainly Wanda Plaza. Even Wanda even changed its company name. On March 1, 2018, Dalian Wanda Commercial Property Co. changed its name to Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co. Wanda Commercial announced that it would no longer engage in real estate development and become a pure commercial management and operation enterprise.
Despite this, Wanda Commercial’s application for an A-share IPO still could not change its fate of termination.
The key problem for Wanda Commercial came in September 2016, when Wanda Commercial was privatized and delisted from Hong Kong shares and introduced strategic investments, while signing a betting agreement in which both parties agreed that Wanda Commercial Management would complete its A-share listing in August 2018. Because the Chinese Communist Party regulatory authorities have closed the door to A-share listings of real estate companies since 2016, in early 2018, Wanda Commercial Management signed a second betting agreement with the war investor, agreeing to complete the listing by October 31, 2023.
Although five years have passed since 2016 and three years have passed since 2018, Wanda Commercial’s road back to A-share listing has basically made no substantial progress in a sense. The remaining time window for Wanda Commercial is slowly disappearing.
The report said that according to the betting agreement, Wanda Commercial has to complete the listing before October 31, 2023, giving Wanda boss Wang Jianlin not much time left, so it may be wise to choose to return to Hong Kong shares. But it is worth noting that Wanda Commercial was delisted from Hong Kong that year because of its low valuation, and now once it re-enters the Hong Kong capital market, will it still be sought after by the capital market.
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