Wanda’s debt crisis continues to escalate. In recent years, Wanda Group has faced a debt crisis due to failed gambling agreements. Chairman Wang Jianlin has been continuously selling off assets to save the company. Over the past three years, he has sold 80 Wanda Plazas to alleviate financial pressures, but the 66.2 billion yuan debt crisis remains unresolved.
As of May 26, shares worth approximately 490 million yuan owned by Wang Jianlin have been frozen, and Dalian Wanda Group has been subject to nearly 7.6 billion yuan in total execution.
According to data from Tianyancha App, recently over 300 million shares of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group held by Wang Jianlin have been frozen. Since the beginning of this year, shares held by Wang Jianlin in core enterprises such as Dalian Wanda Group, Dalian Huaxing Investment, Wanda Sports, and Zhuhai Wanda Ruichi Management have been frozen, totaling over 490 million yuan.
On May 8, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management had 304.9 million yuan in shares frozen by the Xigang District Court in Dalian, with the freeze period extending to May 7, 2027.
Prior to this, shareholdings in Dalian Huaxing Investment, Wanda Group, Wanda Sports, and others had already been frozen, amounting to 770.28 million yuan, 2.4 million yuan, and 50 million yuan respectively.
The debt crisis was triggered by a gambling agreement signed by Wanda Commercial Management and investors in 2021, committing to be listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange by the end of 2023. In the event of a failed listing, they would have to repurchase 38 billion yuan in shares with an 8% annual interest rate. The failure of the listing, coupled with creditors seeking repayment, resulted in the freezing of shares.
To repay debts, Wang Jianlin has been selling off Wanda Plazas from 2023 to 2025, with a speculated transaction amount of around 50 billion yuan. In May 2025, 48 plazas were sold to investors such as Taimei, Tencent, and JD.com.
According to information disclosed by the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China, the acquisition of shares of 48 companies under Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group by various entities is expected to total 50 billion yuan.
In 2023 and 2024, Wang Jianlin had already sold over 30 Wanda Plazas. According to the official website, by the end of 2023, Wanda owned 498 Wanda Plazas in total.
Despite Wanda Group’s continuous selling of assets to generate cash flow, they have still struggled to repay debts. As of this year, Dalian Wanda Group has seen multiple cases of share freezes and executions.
From November 1, 2024, to April 27, 2025, Dalian Wanda Group has faced executions totaling nearly 7.6 billion yuan. Tianyancha data shows that Wang Jianlin is associated with over 42 companies, of which 10 are active and the remaining 32 are either deregistered or suspended.
John Allen of the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina stated that the challenges faced by Wang Jianlin and Wanda are a microcosm of the collapse facing the Chinese real estate industry. Fortunately, Wanda is in a better position compared to Evergrande, with lower leverage and debt ratios, enabling them to sell off assets under pressure from creditors and the courts to alleviate financial stress.
However, the loss of core assets will bring severe consequences, leading to a loss of competitiveness for this once-star enterprise. This situation could signal a chilling effect in the industry, impacting other real estate developers in China.
Wanda Commercial Management’s earnings report for the first three quarters of last year showed a net profit of approximately 9.779 billion yuan, a decrease from 11.057 billion yuan in the same period in 2023. As of September 30, 2024, Wanda Commercial Management’s total assets reached 614.047 billion yuan, with total liabilities amounting to 299.03 billion yuan.