Sunseeker buyer Wanda has $5bn a year to invest overseas
CHINESE property developer Dalian Wanda Group said yesterday it can afford to spend as much as $5bn (£3.16bn) every year to buy foreign firms or assets, underscoring the rising clout of the firm as it expands abroad.
Just weeks after completing its buyout of British yacht maker Sunseeker International, chairman Wang Jianlin says that he’s prepared to spend even more than $5bn in a single acquisition if the right opportunity arises.
Wang, ranked as China’s richest man by Forbes this week, said the company will continue to focus on the hospitality and entertainment industries. Wanda Group, a privately-held conglomerate that operates businesses ranging from hotels and shopping malls to cinemas, has expanded rapidly outside China in recent years.
In June, Wang said that he planned to invest about $1bn to build a five-star hotel in New York and that he wanted to build hotels in eight to 10 cities outside China over the next decade in an effort to increase the firm’s global presence.
The announcement followed a £1bn investment that included buying Sunseeker, Britain’s largest luxury yacht maker by sales, and building a 160-room Wanda hotel and apartment building in London.