Wanda Group, owned by Wang Jianlin, has transferred 30% of the equity of Shanghai Wanda Network Financial Services Co., Ltd. and Kuaiqian Financial Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Under high debt pressure, Wang Jianlin is once again realizing assets.
On July 24, China RuYi Holdings Limited issued an announcement regarding the acquisition of 30% of the equity in the target company. The announcement revealed that the company’s indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai RuYi Xingchen Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. (the “buyer”), Shanghai Wanda Network Financial Services Co., Ltd. (the “seller”), and Kuaiqian Financial Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (the “target company”) entered into a stock transfer agreement. According to this agreement, the buyer conditionally agreed to acquire while the seller conditionally agreed to transfer 30% of the equity of the target company for a cash consideration of 240 million yuan, payable in three installments.
The announcement stated that Kuaiqian Financial Services Company was the first group to receive a third-party payment license issued by the People’s Bank of China in 2011, providing comprehensive payment solutions to large and medium-sized enterprises, actively expanding overseas operations, developing digital RMB, launching cross-border payments, global acquiring, cross-border RMB settlement, overseas purchases, and other cross-border products, providing comprehensive payment solutions for cross-border multi-scenarios.
However, the announcement mentioned, “The completion of the transaction is subject to several conditions including approval by the central bank.” After the transaction is completed, “the company will become the largest single shareholder of the target company.”
Observer Net commented on July 28 that this equity transfer is a reluctant compromise for the Wanda Group under high debt pressure.
Prior to this, the actual controller of Kuaiqian Financial was Wang Jianlin, Chairman and President of Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd. In the second half of 2021, Evergrande Group faced a liquidity crisis, and Wanda began to sell its assets sequentially to realize funds. China RuYi Holdings had previously acquired assets under Wanda Group several times. On July 23, 2023, Shanghai RuYi acquired 49% of Beijing Wanda Investment for a price of 2.262 billion yuan, providing much-needed liquidity to Wanda during the financial strain. Over the following year, China RuYi and its subsidiaries acquired 100% equity of Wanda Investment through multiple equity transfers, indirectly becoming the controlling shareholder of Wanda Pictures.
The market is observing with caution whether China RuYi’s acquisition of Kuaiqian payment can be successfully integrated.
According to Tianyan Cha app, Kuaiqian Payment has zero personnel size, classified as a micro-enterprise.
Furthermore, in January 2022, Kuaiqian Payment was fined 10.04 million yuan for violating account/clearing management and inadequate anti-money laundering practices. In July 2023, Kuaiqian Payment’s Hainan Branch was fined 730,000 yuan for fund settlement to accounts with different names and irregularly providing “T+0” settlements. In April of this year, Kuaiqian Payment’s Shandong Branch was fined 20,000 yuan for violating clearing management regulations. On July 7, the administrative penalty information released by the Shanghai Branch of the People’s Bank of China showed that Kuaiqian Payment Clearing Information Co., Ltd. was warned and fined 6.25 million yuan for violating clearing management regulations, account management regulations, and merchant management regulations.
Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at Botong Consulting in the financial industry, believes that “Kuaiqian has accumulated fines exceeding tens of millions in the past three years, exposing its weak risk control system.”
Observer Net believes that whether China RuYi can smoothly integrate Kuaiqian Payment and avoid “licensed idling” may be answered by the market in the future.