At its semi-annual meeting in Beijing the Wanda Group announced a revised structure that will include the establishment of a new dedicated finance division to be known as “Wanda Finance Group”.
The new division will include businesses devoted to banking, security and insurance that will be under mergers and acquisitions in the second half of the year.
Wanda and 99Bill tried its hand at internet finance in June in the form of a crowdfunding project "Stable Earner No. 1", which sold out in a very short period of time, setting a global crowdfunding record of 10 billion yuan within the space of two weeks.
The four main pillars of the Wanda Group going forward are to be, Commercial properties, culture, finance and e-commerce.
Wanda will take advantage of its offline shopping channels and retail partners to create a business that combines online with finance, according to Wanda Group Chairman Wang Jianlin. Firstly, Wanda will add millions of its own cloud POS terminals over the next five years at Wanda Plazas to monitor individual retailers cash flow and ultimately reduce risk. Wanda Finance will make sufficient use of e-commerce and big data obtained by 99bill, to eventually open less or even no physical stores, thus minimizing costs and maximizing profits.
Wanda Commercial Properties will head up the group's commercial property construction, hotel management, property management, and more. Along with the implementation of the "asset-light" strategy, Wanda Commerce is striving to transform from a real estate company to a business services company.
Wanda Cultural Industry Group now owns companies in Film and TV, tourism, sports and children's entertainment. A significant share of Spanish team Atletico de Madrid is among the sports investments.
The four main divisions will form a strong business eco-system that combines online and offline resources to rely on and support each other. For instance, the fast expansion of Wanda Plazas across China creates a growth platform for Wanda Cinemas and the children's entertainment businesses, while the big data that Wanda e-commerce obtains from customers and retailers provides valuable lessons for Wanda's internet finance development.
