The company was founded in
Dalian, Liaoning, in 1988 as a residential real estate company by Chinese businessman and investor
Wang Jianlin. Incorporated in 1992, the company was "one of the first shareholding companies in the People's Republic of China" after the
reform and opening up.
Diversification push Since 2005, Dalian Wanda and other prominent Chinese real estate companies such as
Evergrande have made numerous forays into "
alternative, income-generating businesses away from the income-producing Chinese property market." Dalian Wanda acquired the American cinema operator
AMC Theatres in May 2012 for US$2.6 billion, the largest Chinese acquisition of an American company to that date. The acquisition went through successfully in August 2012, making Wanda Cinemas the world's largest cinema operator. As of 2016, Wanda owned approximately 6% of all commercial movie screens in China, and about 13% in the U.S. In June 2013, Dalian Wanda planned to invest $1.1 billion to develop a new five-star hotel in
London next to the
Thames River in
Vauxhall, South London, as part of the
Nine Elms regeneration. In January 2015, Dalian Wanda purchased an office building in
Sydney, Australia, from American alternative investment management firm
Blackstone Group for around US$327 million. The company is "aggressively expanding overseas to move away from China's property market, which has been hit by a slowing economy". Dalian Wanda developed a skyscraper in Chicago initially called
Wanda Vista, designed by the Chicago-based architect
Jeanne Gang, which would become the city's third-tallest building and the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, passing Chicago's
Aqua Tower (also designed by Jeanne Gang). On January 11, 2016, Wanda Group acquired the American film production and mass media company
Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion. The acquisition of Legendary made Wanda Film Holdings the highest revenue-generating film production company in the world. In May 2016, Wanda Group acquired Propaganda GEM and Hoolai Games. The entertainment marketing and product placement agency and gaming company eventually became part of Wanda Group's entertainment arm. Wanda Group also owns 20 percent of Mtime, a Chinese film website. In September 2016, Wanda announced a major partnership with
Sony Pictures Entertainment, in which it would take minority investments in a number of upcoming releases. Sony stated that Wanda planned to "highlight the China element in the films in which it invests". The deal came in the wake of Wanda's failed bid to acquire a stake in
Paramount Pictures. In November 2016, Wanda announced it would acquire the American television production company
Dick Clark Productions for around $1 billion. However, the deal fell through, with
Bloomberg citing increasing regulation of Chinese investments both domestically and in the United States, and
Deadline.com citing financial struggles in Wanda's real estate business. In May 2017, Wanda announced it would invest US$3.3 billion by 2024 in
EuropaCity, a mega commercial real estate project near Paris's
Charles de Gaulle airport that would boast of a theme park, attractions, cultural exhibitions, retail shops, outdoor sports venues and restaurants over about 200 acres. It's Wanda's biggest-ever single project in Europe. Its other offshore real estate interests include a major development on the banks of London's River Thames and plans for an industrial park in India at a US$10 billion investment. In July 2017, Wanda initiated the official opening of
Danzhai Wanda Village, a tourism project valued at US$200 million aimed at alleviating the socioeconomic struggles faced by the community of Danzhai. On July 14, 2017, it was reported that Wanda was selling a number of theme parks and hotels for US$9.3 billion to Chinese property developer
Sunac. On August 5, 2017, Wanda invested US$2.14 billion in the Chinese health care industry and launched the Health Care Group in joint cooperation with the British health care services provider,
International Hospital Group. On August 9, 2017, Dalian Wanda Group announced the combined acquisitions of Wanda Culture Travel Innovation Group and Wanda Hotel Management Co. respectively in a major corporate restructuring throughout the conglomerates hospitality division. In a filing posted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Wanda Hotel Development said it will acquire Wanda Travel for RMB6.3 billion, paid either in cash, the issue of shares and/or convertible bonds, with share prices determined by the company's closing price on Aug. 8 at HK$1.16 per share. Wanda Hotel Development would acquire Wanda Hotel Management for a cash price of RMB750 million. In September 2017, Wanda made a foray into the Chinese high-technology industry when it launched its technology start-up business accelerator project. The final 15 high-technology business startups had been selected as the most promising for the first Wanda Accelerator project, would earn the privilege to take full advantage of Wanda's resources, including its pool of private equity and
venture seed capital. Wanda's foray into the creation of imaginative and cutting-edge technological goods and services as a campaign to cultivating China's national scientific and technological innovative capacity would act as the financier to fund the country's latest and most promising high-technology startup companies of tomorrow. On September 28, 2017, S&P downgraded Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties to BB. In 2017, Wanda derived around 49 percent of its revenue from Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. 28% or $10.85 billion, of total revenue was contributed by Wanda's cultural division, including cinemas, sports, and film production-related assets. On January 29, 2018,
Tencent,
Suning,
JD.com, and Sunac signed strategic investment agreements with Wanda Commercial, with plans to invest about RMB 34 billion to acquire Wanda Commercial's 14% equity interest. On February 5, 2018, Wanda Group signed a strategic investment agreement with Alibaba Group and Cultural Investment Holdings. The 2 parties will invest 7.8 billion yuan for Wanda Film Holding's 12.77% stake. Of which,
Alibaba invests 4.68 billion yuan and CIS invests 3.12 billion yuan, becoming the second and third largest shareholders after the transaction. Wanda Group remains the controlling shareholder with 48.09% of shares in Wanda Film. On April 28, 2018, the
Qingdao Movie Metropolis, a nearly RMB 50 billion industrial investment project, was completed after four years and seven months of construction. The Qingdao Movie Metropolis covers a land area of 166 hectares. In May 2018, Wanda, Tencent, and
Gaopeng reached a mutual agreement to establish a collaborative internet technology initiative aimed at developing an innovative consumer model that seamlessly merges the realms of online and offline commerce. Among the three companies, the breakdown of the JV's shareholdings was as follows: Wanda Group's Wanda Commercial Management Group (51%), Tencent (42.48%), and Gaopeng (6.52%).
Initial public offering In December 2014, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, the group's property division, raised $3.7 billion in an
initial public offering on the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the "most money a real estate company has raised in the public markets." Windfall profits following the IPO made founder Wang Jianlin worth more than $25 billion, effectively making him one of China's richest businessmen and investors.
Standard & Poor was concerned that the move would weaken Wanda Commercial's business transparency. The purchase was finalized March 31, 2015, when the company Wanda Madrid Investment, a subsidiary of Dalian Wanda Group, officially become a partial owner of Atlético Madrid after gaining control of 726,707 shares, representing a 20 percent ownership stake of the entire team. The purchase price was valued at €44,983,163.30, or €61.90 per share. The Group sold 17% of its stake to Israeli businessman
Idan Ofer on 14 February 2018 for an undisclosed amount. In February 2015, Dalian Wanda won an auction to purchase
Infront Sports & Media, a
sports marketing company based in
Zug, Switzerland, for $1.2 billion. Infront distributes
broadcasting rights for some of the world's biggest sporting events; for example, it had the exclusive sales rights to broadcast
FIFA's events from 2015 to 2022, including the
2018 and
2022 World Cups. According to Wang Jianlin himself, "the acquisition is expected to help boost the viability of
sports in China as well as to amplify Wanda's visibility and influence in global sports." ,
Hubei. In August 2015, Dalian Wanda had acquired
World Triathlon Corporation, an American sports promotion company promoting and licensing various triathlon competitions including the Ironman, for $650 million. In November 2015, it was announced that Dalian Wanda created a sports division within the company, with the purpose of housing the entirety of Wanda Group's portfolio of sports-related assets. In June 2017, the Wanda Group purchased
Competitor Group (operator of the
Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series). Also that year, the company purchased the naming rights for the
Estadio de la Comunidad de Madrid, home of
association football club
Atlético Madrid, which was renamed the Wanda Metropolitano. In late February 2018, Wanda Group took control of
Chinese Super League team
Dalian Professional, though the decision was not officially announced. Wanda also signed
Yannick Carrasco and
Nicolas Gaitan from
Atlético Madrid right after selling the club's shares. Wanda Group was also one of the organizers and sponsors of the
Tour of Guangxi. ==Operations==