Debt is at its peak, and Wang Jianlin is at a critical juncture again

Reporter, Li Huilin, Editor, Tan Lu

Wang Jianlin’s good days were just a few days away, and he had reached a critical juncture again.

Recently, it has been reported that Wanda Group is discussing with major domestic banks the renewal plan of domestic loans to extend the repayment time of the principal of domestic loans.

This move could be seen as a restructuring of its domestic debt.

The IPO of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has been postponed again, and Wang Jianlin’s move has been interpreted as saying that Wanda Group’s funds have been stretched thin.

The market has long been moved by the wind.

Since April, Wanda’s bonds have fallen across the board, and the two US dollar bonds issued at the beginning of the year have hit a record low since their issuance.

In the past two years, the real estate industry has been in a huge shock. Wang Jianlin, who has shed heavy assets and embarked on the road of light assets, has been fortunate to avoid this round of crisis, and even played the role of "white warrior" to rescue his peers. 

However, the listing financing has been fruitless, and Wang Jianlin has been involved in the debt crisis again.

Debt hits

For the IPO of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, Wang Jianlin was originally full of confidence.

Previously, it was agreed with overseas banks to complete the listing before May 8 this year, otherwise Wanda Group would have to repay three offshore loans of $1.30 billion in advance.

At the beginning of this year, the management of Wanda Commercial Management vowed that it would go public in the second quarter. Unexpectedly, there is still no timetable. Since the initial IPO application in 2021, Wanda Commercial Management has submitted its forms three times.

The road to listing was more bumpy than Wang Jianlin had expected.

At an internal meeting half a month ago, he admitted that Wanda Group had encountered periodic difficulties due to the delay in commercial listing.

The difficulties center on the debt pressure, starting with the looming maturity of the two betting agreements.

The aforementioned three offshore loans of $1.30 billion have triggered repayment treaties.

After negotiation, one-third of the participating lenders agreed to waive this clause, and the agreed listing date was postponed to November 30, 2023, pushing the pressure to six months later.

The greater pressure lies with institutional investors.

In 2021, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management completed a pre-IPO round of financing of 38 billion yuan, including Zhuhai SASAC, Zheng Yutong family, Country Garden, CITIC Capital, Ant and other consortiums.

If the IPO cannot be completed by the end of 2023, the strategic investor has the right to exercise the right to sell back and request its parent company, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, to repurchase capital.

The latest bond report shows that by the end of 2022, Dalian Wanda’s short-term borrowings increased by 9 times to 5.046 billion yuan, and non-current liabilities due within one year rose sharply to 68.768 billion yuan, an increase of 3 times year-on-year.

There was a huge amount of potential repurchase money before, and then there was a peak in debt repayment.

According to the data of the Enterprise Early Warning Platform, only Dalian Wanda Commercial Management is the main body, with a total of 6 bonds maturing within one year, the balance is 4.923 billion yuan, and there is a 400 million dollar bond overseas, which will mature in July.

Raise money everywhere

The repayment date is approaching, and Wang Jianlin said that Wanda will not go bankrupt.

He went to various places to discuss cooperation and increase the chips of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management’s listing; while "looking for money" everywhere to fill the debt hole. 

Since the beginning of this year, Wang Jianlin has a busy itinerary. From mid-February to mid-March, he traveled to Jilin, Henan, Guizhou and Liaoning provinces within a month to negotiate cultural tourism projects.

(Source: Visual China)

During his business trip, Wang Jianlin met with senior management of banking institutions on several occasions.

In February, he signed cooperation agreements with Harbin Bank and Zhongyuan Bank, and in mid-March he met with the acting chairperson of Shengjing Bank.

Previously, Wang Jianlin has started to prepare domestic and foreign debt financing. In January-February, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management issued two overseas bonds totaling 700 million US dollars; in March, it announced that it plans to issue 2 billion yuan of interbank bonds.

Overall, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management’s external financing capacity is weakening. In the past two years, its financing cash flow has been in a net outflow state, with a net outflow of 30.036 billion yuan in 2022 alone.

The two foreign bonds issued at the beginning of this year have a coupon rate of up to 11%, indicating that financing has become more difficult.

Two months ago, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management also submitted to the Shanghai Stock Exchange to register a 6 billion-sized corporate bond, which was questioned by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and asked to explain the reasons for the continued large-scale negative cash flow of financing activities and evaluate the impact on the bond repayment.

At present, Wanda Commercial Management has not replied yet.

Due to the difficulty of financing, Wang Jianlin turned to pledging and reducing his holdings in listed companies to obtain loans and cash.

In January, Wang Jianlin pledged his 65.04% stake in Wanda Hotels to Temasek Holdings for a loan.

In March, Wang Jianlin has two times to reduce Wanda Film shares, to reduce the closing price of the day, a total of about 1.50 billion yuan.

On April 25, China Resources called it a "rumour" after market news that Wanda’s property division would be acquired by China Resources Land.

Due to concerns about Wanda’s commercial liquidity, in May, Moody’s downgraded the family rating of Wanda Commercial Management Company to "Ba2" and placed it on the downgrade watch list.

This means that Wang Jianlin’s subsequent overseas financing will become more difficult.

False prosperity?

Despite being mired in debt distress, Wang Jianlin’s business portfolio has not been subject to major fluctuations, and Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, as a core asset, has maintained stable performance.

The bond report shows that Dalian Wanda’s commercial management revenue in 2022 was 49.188 billion yuan, an increase of 4.86% year-on-year, mainly due to the growth of the scale of the mall.

By the end of last year, its Wanda Plaza had opened 55 new buildings, with a total of 473 projects and a commercial area of 65.56 million square meters under management.

The revenue pillar of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, mainly investment property leasing and management, is about 45.10 billion yuan in 2022, contributing 90% of total revenue.

Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is an asset-light part spun off from Dalian Wanda Commercial Management. It is also the main listing body that Wang Jianlin is promoting. It is mainly responsible for the operation of Wanda Plaza, earning rental income and merchant operating income. Its cash flow is more stable than development.

As of the end of 2022, Zhuhai Wanda’s total assets 22.886 billion yuan, accounting for a small volume, but accounting for half of the income.

In 2022, its business operations revenue and profit were 27.12 billion yuan and 12.984 billion yuan respectively.

Under the asset-light strategy, the number of Wanda shopping malls is still increasing. As of the end of last year, there were 187 Wanda plazas under construction, with a commercial area of 21.95 million square meters.

Wanda Plaza’s ability to attract investment was once a source of confidence for Wang Jianlin to go public. By the end of 2022, the rental rate of its shops was 98.7%, and the rent collection rate was 100%.

However, whether these dazzling data are false prosperity requires a question mark.

In March, a Wanda employee pointed out that the authenticity of Wanda Commercial Management’s merchant performance, rental rate, passenger flow and other data is questionable. It is said that Wanda implements strict assessment indicators, requiring tenants to seize and attract investment rates to achieve 100%. In the period when the physical business is hit by the epidemic, this is an almost impossible task, and front-line employees can only "fake".

"Although the merchants don’t owe Wanda Group, they owe a lot to the general manager and deputy general manager of the project."

A Wanda employee told 21CBR that in order to meet the rent collection rate targets, some managers sometimes advance the rent for merchants, and then let the merchants pay it back slowly.

An industry insider also pointed out to reporters that it is almost impossible for every shopping mall to achieve a 100% investment rate, especially in some non-central urban business districts, where investment is much more difficult than before.

The reporter’s on-site visit also saw that the rental situation of some Wanda plazas is not ideal, such as Guangzhou Baiyun, Panyu Wanda plaza, many indoor shops are vacant, weekend lunch time, in addition to the dining area, the traffic counting in the mall is not large.

For the authenticity of the financial data, Wanda has not yet replied.

IPG China Chief Economist Bai Wenxi pointed out that companies that usually plan to list in Hong Kong stocks need only 3-6 months from obtaining the acceptance letter from the Securities Supervision Commission to obtaining the approval approval. Previously, there has been no listing cycle for more than half a year due to approval reasons. Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has set a record for the slowest overseas listing of private enterprises.

He believes that the possibility of Wanda Commercial Management rushing back to class A shares listing in the future is not ruled out.

It is said that Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is still advancing the IPO matter. In accordance with the new regulations of the Securities Supervision Commission, the documents will be updated again in the future. According to the gambling agreement, Wang Jianlin has less than seven months.

Strengthening the cultural consciousness of film adaptation of online novels

  TV series The Longest Day In Chang’an stills information pictures

  [Ask and cut the net text]

  ● The cultural consciousness of online novels with the theme of ancient costumes in the process of film and television adaptation has broadened the space for their development. At the same time, the arrival of the "internet plus" era has also brought a new opportunity and challenge to the development of online literature.

  ● From online novels to film and television dramas, it belongs to "re-creation" and "re-creation". The value guidance and cultural atmosphere should not be a process of weakening, but should be a process of continuous improvement and strengthening, so that the value guidance is more in line with social value norms and the cultural atmosphere is fuller and more authentic.

  From its germination, prosperity to popularity, online novels with the theme of ancient costumes have always been inextricably linked with Chinese traditional culture. The mature development of online literature can not be separated from the influence and nourishment of traditional culture, from the ancient costume theme in the early days, to the hot travel novels later, and to the increasingly popular online novels with biographical costume themes recently. In recent years, some popular TV series adapted from online novels, such as Hougong Zhenhuan Biography, Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, legend of miyue, nirvana in fire, Do you know if it should be green and fat, The Longest Day In Chang’an and Joy of Life, show the grand Chinese history, classic poems and songs, and traditional folk customs one by one, coupled with different types and styles of plays, personalized character design and subtle cultural connotation, showing Chinese tradition. The cultural consciousness in the process of film adaptation of online novels with the theme of ancient costume broadens the space for their development, and the arrival of the "internet plus" era also brings a new opportunity and challenge to the development of online literature.

  Let "overhead" land.

  In the early stage of creation, online novels with the theme of ancient costume tend to adopt the writing style of "overhead" history, or construct the whole work in the mode of crossing time and space. This creative way far away from history has found a more reasonable solution in the process of film and television adaptation of online novels.

  Wu Xuelan’s Biography of Zhen Huan, an online writer, is the main representative of returning to historical film and television works from online novels with overhead history. In the original work, the author fictionalized a dynasty, telling the story of a bloody incident in the former imperial harem from the first year of Ganyuan to the thirty years of Ganyuan. In the film adaptation, he chose to land in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, relying on the history of the Qing Dynasty, to show that familiar and unfamiliar court story.

  Joy of Life, an online novel, was originally a novel about crossing the theme. It tells the story of a dying patient in modern times, Fan Shen, who happened to cross the fictional country of Qingguo by chance and started a confusing adventure for the rest of his life, hence the name "Yunian Qing". In the process of film and television adaptation, the creator adopted the narrative mode of "play in play" to transform Fan Xian’s legendary experience of celebrating the country into the content of a novel written by Jasmine Zhang, a university student. This plot design not only conforms to the narrative logic of "crossing" the plot in the original work, but also complements the research idea of the protagonist Jasmine Zhang "analyzing the history of ancient literature with modern concepts", and better sews up the gap between the fiction of online literature and the official history, which makes a powerful exploration for the realistic return of novels with costume themes.

  In addition, the accurate positioning of historical events is also a new attempt in the film adaptation of online novels in recent years. The TV series "legend of miyue" directed by Zheng Xiaolong tells the ups and downs of the life story of Mi Yue, the first empress dowager in China history and a female politician of Qin State in the Warring States Period. Among them, allusions such as "Returning to Zhao in perfect condition", "encircling Wei to save Zhao" and "uniting Lian Heng" are accurately reproduced, and figures such as Zhang Yi, Qu Yuan and Huang Xie also appear in the Warring States Period, realizing a high degree of integration of biographies and historical facts. It can be seen that the landing of "overhead" history, the reversal through time and space, and the innovative interpretation of celebrity allusions have become an important path for the film adaptation of online novels, gradually guiding the audience to pay attention to, respect and reflect on history, and to understand and observe reality with a more rational and comprehensive eye.

  Let classical poetry "appear" vividly

  Five thousand years of Chinese traditional culture is extensive and profound, which has become the spiritual soil for the creation of online novels with the theme of ancient costumes. At the same time, online novels actively absorb and transmit the artistic essence of Chinese excellent traditional culture. The emerging network literature forms and excellent traditional culture join hands to explore new ways forward.

  In recent years, the film and television dramas adapted from online novels with the theme of ancient costumes have tried to integrate classical poetry and lyrics into film and television works, making a new attempt for the revival and dissemination of traditional poetry. At present, there are several types of reproduction methods of classic poems in popular dramas with costume themes adapted from online novels.

  First, the name of the play is vividly used in poetry and allusions. For example, the title of the TV series "Do you know if it should be green, fat, red and thin?" is taken from the words in the Song Dynasty poetess Li Qingzhao’s "Like a dream, it rained last night and the wind blew suddenly." When the novel was published, seven poems were also used as the titles of each volume, namely, "Begonia blooms in my hometown today, and only famous flowers are bitter and lonely", "I faded my makeup from plum powder and painted a new red begonia", "Begonia doesn’t hesitate to be rouge, and I don’t wait for the golden house to recommend Huatang", "I don’t know that flowers are more gorgeous until I am pale, and I am eager to love Begonia", "How can I make peaches and plums speak, and sleep with a new begonia?" The title of each volume revolves around "Haitang", which coincides with "green, fat, red and thin". At the same time, the style of writing is the same, and the cultural heritage of the whole work is added.

  Second, classic poems appear frequently in film and television works in the form of lines. For example, in "Biography of the Harem Zhen Huan", Zhen Xuan explained the origin of his maiden name to Yongzheng when he participated in the draft, and quoted the words "a beautiful waist" in Cai Shen’s "A Prune of Plums" in the Northern Song Dynasty, which coincided with Zhen Xuan’s charming appearance and cool temperament. At the same time, he also used Cai Shen’s words and quality to express his personal feelings to Zhen Xuan’s father Zhen Yuandao in the play. In addition, the characters in the play are lined with corresponding poems, which are closely related to the characters’ personalities and fates. For example, Shen Meizhuang chanted "I would rather hold the incense on the branches and die, than ever blow it down in the north wind" (Zheng Sixiao’s "Cold Chrysanthemum"), and An Lingrong sang "Don’t cherish the golden gowns, and advise you to cherish your youth. When flowers bloom, they must be folded straight, so don’t wait until there are no flowers and empty branches "(Yuefu poem" Goldilocks "), and the king of Guojun lamented on the night of Tanabata that" when the golden wind and the jade dew meet, they will overcome countless people "(Qin Guan’s" Queqiao Fairy ").

  The third is to take the allusions in the famous works as the core plot of the film and television drama. For example, the hit drama Joy of Life quoted the poem "Stay in Qing Yu" in A Dream of Red Mansions: "Stay in Qing Yu, stay in Qing Yu, and suddenly meet a benefactor; Lucky mother, lucky mother, accumulated yin gong. Don’t be like my cruel uncle and traitor who loves money and forgets flesh and blood! It is multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, and there is a sky on it! " Taking this as the plot of the drama, and then persuading people to uphold the idea of helping the poor and helping the poor, which is highly consistent with the theme of the drama. The diversified and flexible use of classic poetry in the film and television works adapted from online novels not only expands the communication path of traditional poetry, but also creates an immersive space field for the audience to understand the profound meaning of poetry, which is a novel and extensive way of communication.

  Let the "textual research fever" continue to heat up

  The popularity of film and television dramas on mass cultural consumption is relatively high, and excellent ancient costume works can become a powerful carrier of traditional cultural communication to some extent. The audience’s "textual research" on customs, costumes and etiquette in film and television dramas has given new narrative dimensions to the works with the theme of ancient costume to a certain extent, and also put forward higher and stricter requirements for the writing of online novels with the theme of ancient costume.

  Many details in the drama The Longest Day In Chang’an have caused a heated discussion among netizens. The drama focuses on depicting the prosperous scene of the Tang Dynasty, from the costumes and hair accessories, to the furnishings of daily life, and then to the scene setting of the times, all of which are exquisite and exquisite. In the play, Li Bi, played by Jackson Yee, has attracted everyone’s attention because of his lotus-crowned hair style with hair pins inserted from back to front. The audience carried out in-depth textual research and exploration around the production time and identity symbol of "Meridian Hairpin" and "Maoyou Hairpin". To some extent, this also increases the appreciation dimension of TV series.

  In addition, the "bad teacher" played by Lei Jiayin in the play wears the "round neck robe" and "six-in-one boots", and carries the accessories such as "tie rope", "arm shovel" and "smoke pill" with him, which truly reproduces the mixed style and characteristics of Hu and Han in the Tang Dynasty. In the play, women’s clothing accessories such as "flowers", "bun", "skirt" and "half-chest skirt" mostly echo the characters in famous paintings and poems. "One scoop of food and one drink" has become an important method to spread traditional culture.

  Do you know whether it should be green, fat, red and thin? nirvana in fire and other film and television dramas also reproduce Chinese traditional manners and customs exquisitely. When women meet each other every day, they ask each other "make-up safety" and perform "Wan Fu Li"; Men bow down and bow their hands; When the younger generation says hello to their elders, they will "cross their hands". These courtesies are numerous and varied, and they are also used in exquisite occasions. There are concrete explanations and graphic descriptions in works such as Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Tokyo Meng Hua Lu and Han Xizai’s Night Banquet.

  There are also studies and unique displays of traditional ingredients and pharmacology of traditional Chinese medicine in film and television dramas. For example, in Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, the delicacies such as chicken soup with purple ginseng and snow, lotus root with bi Nuo, milk cake and dark fragrant soup are often mentioned, which are unique in color matching. Even when chopsticks are dropped, the instant when the chopsticks touch the "chopsticks pillow" is particularly attractive. These designs convey the charm of Chinese traditional culture to the audience and bring visual enjoyment. At the same time, the "homophonic" and "metaphor" of dish names have also become an important driving force for the development of drama plots.

  Another example is the interpretation of the efficacy of Rhizoma Smilacis Glabrae, Herba Scorzonepetae, Folium Perillae and Herba Hedyotidis Diffusae in "legend of miyue", which better integrates Chinese traditional culture and Chinese medicine, makes film and television dramas more pyrotechnic, and opens the pace for online literature to land in real life.

  It can be seen that the details of traditional folk customs in film and television dramas can better stimulate the audience’s viewing enthusiasm and psychological expectations. The upsurge of "textual research fever" reflects, to some extent, the desire and pursuit of cultural values by film and television consumption, and therefore film and television dramas have become more diverse and multidimensional, becoming an effective way to convey traditional culture.

  Let the creative concept always walk on the right path

  Under the background of media integration, the network provides more possibilities for the spread of literature, and network literature also has a broader spread space. In the process of film and television adaptation, online novels with the theme of ancient costume have more new ways to inherit and popularize Chinese traditional culture.

  The "little knowledge" pop-up window of "Do you know whether it should be green, fat, red and thin" broadcast on the video website timely and accurately explains the "knowledge points" in the series, and the design of real-time barrage, mini-theater and other links is novel and flexible, opening up a new position for the arrival of traditional culture to "new and new mankind".

  Weibo’s hot topic search, friends circle forwarding, promotion of post bars and related cultural activities on the client side have, to some extent, become new ways to spread traditional culture in film and television dramas. At the same time, the film and television drama adapted from online novels has gradually opened up the linkage with games and animation, realizing industrial integration, providing reference and experience for the cross-industry communication of film and television drama, and also providing the possibility for the cross-industry communication of "national style and Chinese rhyme".

  As some scholars have said, the correlation patterns between the literary value and market value of contemporary literary works are more and more diverse. The arrival of "internet plus" and the era of media integration has brought more possibilities for the spread of literature, art and culture, but it has also brought more tests and challenges. Writers of online novels need to uphold a firm cultural stand and cultural self-confidence, and spread and re-create Chinese traditional culture by removing the rough and the essence, discarding the dross and taking the essence. They should not introduce some pseudoscience, feudal ideas and metaphysical superstitions into their creation, which will lead to the loss of their creative ideas. From online novels to film and television dramas, it belongs to "re-creation" and "re-creation". The value guidance and cultural atmosphere should not be a process of weakening, but a process of continuous improvement and strengthening, so that the value guidance is more in line with social value norms and the cultural atmosphere is fuller and more authentic.

  Under the background of media integration, the film and television works adapted from online novels are more diverse in strategies and ways to spread traditional culture. The interaction of industries such as network, literature, film and television, games and animation will make new explorations for the future development of online literature and network culture. In the face of such a new situation, we need to be full of longing, but also need to be vigilant at all times.

  (Author: Ouyang Yifei, a lecturer at the School of Art and Design of Changzhou Institute of Technology, Dr. college of nanjing normal university, this article is a research project of philosophy and social sciences in Jiangsu universities "‘ Internet plus & rsquo; Film and television major in colleges and universities in the times ‘ Double span ’ Research on talent training mode "phased results)