The day after Wanda lost the 1.7 billion yuan lawsuit against Suning, Wang Jianlin sold two more Wanda Plazas.
Suning.com and Wanda Group, once "good buddies" who raised their glasses to celebrate at the signing ceremony, have now turned against each other in court.
On the evening of June 29, ST Suning.com (002024.SZ) (hereinafter referred to as "Suning.com") announced the latest progress of its lawsuit with Wanda. The Nanjing Intermediate People's Court ruled in the first - instance that Wanda Group should pay Suning.com the remaining funds of 1.747 billion yuan and the loss of delayed payment (calculated at 1.5 times the one - year LPR). Wanda will also bear the case acceptance fee of 8.7768 million yuan.
Behind the ruling, the "Suning System" is burdened with a huge debt of 238.73 billion yuan. It just managed to survive the bankruptcy reorganization in January this year, and the personal assets of founder Zhang Jindong have been completely "wiped out" to pay off the debts. Wanda Group's total liabilities are estimated to be as high as about 60 billion yuan. In the past three years, it has barely recovered by selling more than 80 Wanda Plazas, and members of the strategic investment alliance such as Sunac and Yonghui Superstores are queuing up to collect debts.
Now, can Wanda pay back this 1.747 billion yuan? And why is Suning.com not giving an inch?
It is worth noting that on the day after Suning.com officially announced its first - instance victory, on June 30, two more Wanda Plazas changed hands, namely Shanghai Songjiang Wanda Plaza and Quanzhou Puxi Wanda Plaza. Suzhou Anyi Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) subscribed capital of 2.198 billion yuan and became the absolute controlling party. Behind Suzhou Anyi is PAG, known as the "Blackstone of Asia".
As of June 30, ST Suning.com closed at 1.17 yuan per share, up 1.74%, with a total market value of 10.8 billion yuan.
From "Good Buddies" to Court Opponents
The root of this 1.747 - billion - yuan debt can be traced back to a sensational "super marriage" in the capital circle eight years ago.
In 2018, Wang Jianlin was racking his brains for Wanda Commercial Management's dream of listing on the A - share market. Previously, Wanda Commercial Properties was privatized and delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2016 and planned to return to the A - share market under the name of "Wanda Commercial Management". The price was to introduce multiple strategic investors and promise that if the listing was not completed before October 2023, Wanda Group would repurchase the shares held by investors at the original investment amount plus interest.
This strategic investment alliance worth about 34 billion yuan was led by Tencent Holdings, which brought in Suning.com, JD.com, and Sunac China. All parties signed an agreement to jointly acquire about 14% of the shares held by the investors introduced when Wanda Commercial delisted from the H - shares in Hong Kong.
Suning.com was also in high spirits at that time. As one of the largest home appliance retailers in China, it ranked among the top in China's top 100 retailers with a revenue of nearly 250 billion yuan in 2017. In Zhang Jindong's diversified strategic layout, investing in Wanda Commercial Management was not only a move in capital operation but also a strategic layout to form an ecological synergy with the real - estate giant.
According to the "Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co., Ltd." signed by both parties, Suning International Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary designated by Suning.com, made an investment and finally held 4.02% of the shares of Wanda Commercial Management, with a total investment of about 9.5 billion yuan.
However, things did not develop as planned. Wanda Commercial Management's path to A - share listing was repeatedly blocked, and its application for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management also failed many times in 2021. In October 2023, the agreed listing gambling period expired, and Wanda failed to complete the listing, triggering the repurchase clause.
But Wanda did not repurchase on time, so many companies began to "collect debts" one after another, and Suning.com was one of them.
Suning.com mainly "attacked on three fronts" to collect debts. First, it pursued the repurchase funds through arbitration. On October 22, 2024, Suning.com issued a major arbitration announcement, requesting the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) to rule that Wanda Group should pay Suning.com and its subsidiary Suning International 5.041 billion yuan for share repurchase, and at the same time required Wanda Commercial Management to bear joint and several liability for the above payment obligations. However, in July 2025, the arbitration result of CIETAC came out: Suning's arbitration request for Wanda to pay 5.041 billion yuan for share repurchase was not supported. One of the reasons was that Wanda questioned "whether there was a gambling repurchase agreement" and believed that Suning's claim lacked contractual basis. The first battle was lost.
At the same time, Suning.com also pursued the contract funds through litigation. During the same period as the arbitration, Suning.com and its subsidiary Suning International filed a separate lawsuit in the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, requiring Wanda Group to fulfill its payment obligations in accordance with the relevant contract. This was a more direct way - not talking about repurchase, but only about the funds that Wanda had not yet paid off in the agreement back then. This is the origin of this victory. On June 29, 2026, the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court made a first - instance judgment: Wanda Group should pay Suning.com the remaining funds of 1.747 billion yuan within ten days from the date of the judgment's entry into force, and pay the loss of delayed payment from February 26, 2024, to February 13, 2026 (calculated at 1.5 times the one - year LPR). The case acceptance fee of 8.7768 million yuan was also borne by Wanda Group.
In addition to the above - mentioned lawsuit, Suning International also filed a lawsuit in the Nanjing Intermediate People's Court to "confirm the invalidity of Wanda Commercial Management's resolution to sell assets" and a lawsuit for shareholders' objection to repurchase; at the same time, it filed a separate arbitration with CIETAC, requiring Wanda Group and Wanda Commercial Management to jointly pay the guaranteed profit distribution for 2024.
Arbitration and litigation are proceeding simultaneously, and Suning has almost used all available legal tools. This first - instance victory of 1.747 billion yuan is a phased result of this long - distance debt - collection battle. However, the judgment is still within the appeal period and has not yet taken effect. Whether it can be finally enforced is still unknown.
Can Wanda Pay Back 1.747 Billion Yuan?
Suning won the first - instance, but can it get the money?
The answer is not optimistic.
According to reports from many media such as "China Economic Net", as of the end of 2025, Wanda Commercial Management's total liabilities were about 299 - 320 billion yuan, and Wanda Group's total liabilities were about 600 billion yuan. Among them, the short - term debt repayment gap was about 28.4 - 52.9 billion yuan, and the cash on the book was only 13.3 - 15.1 billion yuan. Judging from the matching degree of cash on the book and short - term debts, Wanda is currently facing a relatively severe level of liquidity pressure.
Facing the mountain of debts, Wang Jianlin has been "selling, selling, selling" in recent years.
In the past three years, Wanda has sold assets to relieve the financial pressure and has sold more than 80 Wanda Plazas in total. In May 2025, it even sold 48 Wanda Plazas in core cities in one go, with the asset package valued at about 50 billion yuan. The hotel management business was sold to Tongcheng Travel for about 2.5 billion yuan, and the equity of Qianbao Financial was transferred to China Ruyi for 240 million yuan. In February 2026, Shanghai Zhuanqiao Wanda Plaza was sold for 2.048 billion yuan. On June 30, two more Wanda Plazas changed hands.
According to multiple sources from "21st Century Business Herald", the equity change procedures of multiple Wanda Plazas are in progress, and it is expected that more Wanda Plazas will officially change investors in the future.
Moreover, Suning is not the only one chasing debts in the strategic investment dispute. Yonghui Superstores, also a member of the 34 - billion - yuan strategic investment alliance back then, also applied for arbitration due to the 3.6 - billion - yuan equity transfer arrears and entered the enforcement stage on May 21 this year.
Data from Tianyancha shows that as of June 2026, Wanda Group had a total of 6 pieces of information on being enforced, with the total amount being enforced exceeding 457.8 million yuan; there were 53 pieces of information on equity freezing, and 735 million yuan of equity was frozen in May this year. Wanda Commercial Management had another 7 pieces of information on being enforced, with the current total amount being enforced exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Yan Yuejin, the deputy dean of the Shanghai E - house Real Estate Research Institute, pointed out that although the above - mentioned transactions have alleviated the liquidity crisis in the short term, they have also led to the continuous loss of core high - quality assets.
However, the good news is that "selling, selling, selling" has reduced the total debt of Wanda Group, and the domestic public bonds of Wanda Commercial Management were basically cleared in April 2025, relieving a temporary breath.
Suning.com clearly stated in the announcement: "The first - instance judgment of this lawsuit is within the appeal period, and the judgment has not yet taken effect. The execution result of the subsequent case is still uncertain, and it is still impossible to accurately judge the impact on the company's financial results."
That is to say, it will take time for this 1.747 billion yuan to be safely in hand. Once Wanda appeals, this lawsuit will continue. And even if Suning wins the final judgment, facing an opponent with continuously shrinking assets and a stack of enforcement records, whether the judgment can be smoothly enforced is still a question mark.
Why Is Suning in a Hurry to Collect Debts?
The feud with Wanda occurred during the period of the "Suning System"'s aggressive expansion. From 2015 to 2019, Suning.com's disclosed external investments exceeded 70 billion yuan. It successively acquired assets such as PPTV, Tiantian Express, Wanda Department Store, and Carrefour China, and made strategic investments in projects such as Evergrande and Wanda Commercial Management, trying to build a diversified business map. However, most of the investments did not meet expectations. Coupled with the failure of the investment in Evergrande, Suning's capital chain gradually came under pressure, and finally a liquidity crisis broke out in 2021, starting a long - term debt restructuring and asset disposal.
People may wonder why Suning, which is now struggling on its own, is still sparing no effort to collect this debt?
In fact, Suning.com is currently actively saving itself.
On January 4, 2026, the combined bankruptcy reorganization plan of 38 enterprises in the "Suning System" was officially implemented. This was the first case of large - enterprise bankruptcy reorganization in 2026. The "Suning Empire", burdened with a huge debt of 238.73 billion yuan, had an asset liquidation value of only 41.005 billion yuan, with a gap of nearly 200 billion yuan between the two. This means that creditors will have to wait a long and painful time for repayment.
Even more cruelly, according to the core framework of the reorganization plan, the rights and interests of external shareholders such as founder Zhang Jindong were all transferred gratis, almost to zero. Zhang Jindong, who has been in charge of Suning for more than 30 years and once became the "richest man in Jiangsu", not only injected all of his 17.7% shares in Suning.com into the reorganization trust but also promised to use all of his personal assets to pay off the debts and became the junior beneficiary of the trust plan.
In 2025, Suning.com achieved an operating income of 48.958 billion yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 13.79%. However, the company still made a profit, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of 58.14 million yuan.
In such a financial situation, this 1.747 billion yuan from Wanda is by no means a small amount for Suning. For Suning, which is deeply involved in debt reorganization and repaying its creditors bit by bit, every sum of money that can be recovered is a drop of supplement to the huge debt pool.
Yuan Shuai, the co - founder of the New - Quality Productivity Meeting Hall of the New Intelligence School, said that the arrival of 1.747 billion yuan of funds can first directly supplement the company's working capital gap and relieve the short - term debt - repayment pressure, avoiding chain risks such as fluctuations in credit ratings and the shaking of supplier cooperation relationships caused by liquidity shortages, which is equivalent to building a safety cushion for the company's daily operations. From a financial perspective, this fund is not simply an increase in the book figure. It is equivalent to giving Suning a buffer space to adjust its business rhythm.
In 2018, Suning and Wanda came together because of common capital interests, thinking that they could support each other and win together in the future. But history did not give them this chance. Wanda Commercial Management's dream of A - share listing was shattered, and Suning's retail empire was on the verge of collapse. The "business partners" who raised their glasses to celebrate at the signing ceremony back then are now facing each other in court.
Yuan Shuai believes that in essence, this dispute between Suning and Wanda is actually a microcosm of the cross - border expansion of enterprises and the blind pursuit of profits by capital in the past decade. When the industry enters the stock adjustment period from the high - growth period, all the agreement loopholes and unclear rights and responsibilities issues that were previously covered by high - speed growth will be exposed. Only by preventing risks before cooperation and clearly defining rights and responsibilities in the agreement can we truly avoid the lose - lose outcome of "friends turning into opponents" and make capital cooperation a real boost rather than a hidden danger for enterprise development.
Suning's first - instance victory this time is a phased victory in this long - lasting debt - collection battle, but the "war" is far from over. And the "good - buddy" period between Suning and Wanda may have completely turned the page.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Yema Finance", author: Yema Finance. Republished by 36Kr with permission.