China is reportedly restricting the completion of six overseas deals by Wanda Group as part of a broader crackdown on offshore investments.
Photo: Kwan Wai Wah/VCG
Chinese regulators have ordered local banks to stop loans to property-to-entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing a document from an unnamed bank, the newspaper reported Monday that regulators met with executives of the country’s big state-owned banks on June 20 and advised them that Dalian Wanda’s foreign acquisitions were subject to the capital restrictions imposed by the government last year.
The deals referred to by the regulator included the purchase of Hollywood producer Legendary Entertainment, as well as other entertainment purchases including that of US theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings and Carmike Cinemas, among others.
China announced tighter capital controls last November in a bid to curb its companies overseas acquisitions and slow down the massive capital flight that was causing concern to authorities.
This new decision, as per the Wall Street Journal report, will make financing difficult for Wanda’s outstanding deals to purchase European theater operators Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group and Nordic Cinema Group. The decision also reportedly bans Wanda from injecting any of its foreign assets into its listed company in China.
Last week, Wanda Group sold $9.3 billion in hotel and tourism properties to property developer Sunac China, marking a retreat from the theme park business a year after the company’s billionaire chairman Wang Jianlin boasted that his “wolf pack” of theme parks would drive the Walt Disney Co. out of China.
