Wanda posts first sales decline in 11 years

Bloomberg

Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s revenue fell for the first time in at least 11 years after a slump in its property business outweighed growth from entertainment operations at billionaire Wang Jianlin’s conglomerate. Sales, which includes property-contracted sales, declined 14 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, according to a Wanda statement, more than a January 2016 forecast of a 12 percent drop. Revenue at Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co., the group’s real-estate unit, declined 25 percent to 143 billion yuan ($20.7 billion).
Wanda’s operating revenue rose 3.4 percent to 255 billion yuan, while profit grew more than 10 percent, it said, without giving specifics. China’s second-richest man has been acquiring Hollywood assets — he bought film producer Legendary Entertainment last year — to help Wanda diversify away from its real-estate roots.
Wang, speaking to employees at Wanda’s annual meeting in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui province in eastern China, said Ffan.com, a unit that includes Internet financing and credit-rating businesses, will raise 10 billion yuan via a private placement this year. He ultimately plans to list the unit by 2020 and target profit of more than 10 billion yuan.