Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin is once again looking at investing in Spain as media reports claim he is negotiating a deal to invest €1.2 billion in the Marina d'Or resort on the Mediterranean coast. It is thought that he is working on a deal to acquire a 75 percent stake in the resort under his Dalian Wanda company.The resort was heavily affected during the financial crisis.
Wang has already visited the site which has been largely empty and abandoned after its developer went bankrupt during the financial crisis.
A spokesman for the resort complex told the El Pais newspaper that negotiations were ongoing with Wang's Wanda group, though at the moment "no deal has been reached".
Tipped to have become the 'Las Vegas of Spain' Marina d'Or's developers had lofty goals to turn the coastal spot into Europe's biggest vacation resort but the collapse of the Spanish real estate market led to a collapse in apartment sales.
The resort town in Oropesa del Mar, north of Valencia, already has five hotels, a spa, a golf course and a theme park.
Dalian Wanda is China's largest real estate developer and the world's largest movie theatre operator. Wang, a former senior member of China's ruling Communist Party, is worth more than $30 billion (€2.83 billion), according to Forbes magazine.
With a 20 percent stake in Spanish La Liga club Atlético Madrid Wang Jianlin is no stranger to Spain having also purchased the 117-meter Edificio España building on the Spanish capital's Plaza de Espana from Santander in a deal worth €265 million in 2014.
