Wanda financial arm sells stake to China Unionpay

Huge logo of Wanda Group in a Wanda Plaza. [Photo/VCG]

Dalian Wanda Group began to sell a stake in its financial arm to China Unionpay, after it sold 91 percent equity of 13 tourism projects to Sunac China for 43.84 billion yuan last month, The Economic Observer reported on Tuesday.

This move will likely aim to prepare for listing, or reduce its debt, a person familiar with the matter told the newspaper. In 2016, Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin vowed to spin off Wanda Financial by 2020.

On Feb 22, the registered capital of the Wanda financial platform, Shanghai Wanda Internet Financial Service, rose from four billion yuan to nine billion yuan, and later, the figure increased to 9.3 billion yuan on July 20.

The shareholders of Shanghai Wanda Internet Financial Service also changed – the three newly-added shareholders include China UnionPay's subsidiary Shanghai Lianyin Investment Co Ltd.

Currently, detailed information about the stake of China Unionpay in Wanda Financial have yet to be disclosed.

Wanda Group signed a strategic partnership with China Unionpay in March, speeding up its efforts to integrate its offline and online resources.

As part of the strategic cooperation, China UnionPay's subsidiary, Shanghai Lianyin Investment Co Ltd, will acquire a stake in Wanda Internet Technology Group.

In 2016, Wanda Internet Technology Group was spun off from Wanda Financial Group into a separate company.

After the spin-off, the new Wanda Financial Group focused on traditional financial business such as banking, insurance and investment, while Ffan Technology, 99Bill, big data and cloud computing center belonged to Wanda Internet Technology Group.