Wanda’s Mall Unit Delays $3 Billion Hong Kong IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co. has put a planned Hong Kong initial public offering for its shopping mall unit on hold, according to people familiar with the matter.

Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co. has delayed the listing due to recent market volatility, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Challenging conditions in China’s real estate sector have also affected the firm’s IPO prospects, one of the people said.

Wanda had planned to list the unit in the first half of this year, another person said.

Deliberations are ongoing and the IPO could resume if markets improve, the people said. An external representative for Wanda Commercial declined to comment. After publication, Wanda Commercial said in a statement on its website that news of the postponement is untrue and the listing is progressing normally, without providing further details. 

The unit’s IPO could have raised about $3 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. Asian private equity firm PAG, property developer Country Garden Holdings Co. and technology company Tencent Holdings Ltd. were among the firms weighing joining a pre-IPO funding round of about $6 billion last year, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

Established in 2002, the unit manages 380 Wanda Plaza shopping malls and has a gross floor area of 54.2 million square meters as of June 30, 2021, according to its website.

The proposed listing received approval from Chinese regulators last year. Citic Securities Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Credit Suisse Group AG are joint sponsors of the offering, according to pre-listing documents filed with the Hong Kong exchange in October.

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With assistance from Bloomberg