Wang Jianlin has returned, with neither wind, rain nor clear skies.
The business world is full of ups and downs. Some people retreat bravely amid the fierce tide, some suffer crushing defeats and exit the market, while Wang Jianlin chooses to stage a comeback.
Recently, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Dalian Wanda Commercial Management") has undergone industrial and commercial changes. Chen Hongtao stepped down as chairman, and Wang Jianlin took over as chairman and director. This is the first time Wang Jianlin has returned to this position after 14 years.
But this time, the chairman's seat is far from easy to occupy, as the role of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management in the Wanda system has undergone fundamental changes. "Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management", the core operation platform of its Wanda Plazas, has lost its equity control.
After going around in circles, Wang Jianlin is back, but he no longer holds the unchallenged authority he had in the past. What is more troublesome is that although Wanda has been working hard to "sell off assets" over the years, its debts are still far from being paid off.
Just last month, the Dalian Branch of China Great Wall Asset Management Co., Ltd. put up for public bidding a creditor's right of approximately 945 million yuan held against Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd., which is just the tip of the iceberg of Wanda's huge debt.
Wang Jianlin's return this time is less of a "king returning to his throne" than a "clean-up of the mess". However, the business world is so cruel that to qualify for a comeback, one must first prove that they have the strength to do so.
Wanda is no longer what it used to be
Recently, Wang Jianlin, who has not appeared in public for a long time, was spotted at the Three Pagodas Scenic Area of Chongsheng Temple in Dali, Yunnan, taking a group photo with the staff. In the footage, Wang Jianlin looks in good spirits but much thinner, a far cry from his former image.
Many netizens left messages saying that Wang Jianlin has become as thin as a "paper figure", which is completely incomparable to the high spirits he showed when he talked about "a small goal" back then. This is not hard to understand, after all, both Wanda and Wang Jianlin have had a tough time over these years.
The turning point came in 2021.
That year, Wanda established Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, injecting the commercial operation business of a large number of Wanda Plazas into it, hoping to launch another IPO impact on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through "Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management" after Wanda Commercial was delisted.
Wanda was determined to make this a success, and at the same time introduced 22 institutional investors including PAG, CITIC Capital, Tencent, and Country Garden, and signed a bet agreement:
First, from 2021 to 2023, the profit of Wanda Commercial Management needs to reach the agreed target; second, Wanda Commercial Management must be listed by the end of 2023. If the bet fails, investors have the right to require Wanda to repurchase the shares.
However, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management submitted its prospectus four times in a row, all ending in failure. Failing to get listed, Wanda had to solve the exit problem for this group of investors and pay a repurchase amount of more than 30 billion yuan.
However, according to reports from TMTPost, as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management had only 13.269 billion yuan in monetary funds on its books, which was completely unable to cover the debts at that time. In the end, one of the investors, PAG, stepped forward.
In December 2023, PAG signed an investment framework agreement with Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group. PAG, together with multiple investment institutions, will invest about 600 billion yuan in Dalian Xindameng Commercial Management Co., Ltd., holding a total of 60% of the shares, while Dalian Wanda Commercial Management holds 40% of the shares. Among them, "Xindameng" is a newly established holding company, and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is injected into it.
Wanda's repurchase pressure was temporarily relieved, but at the cost of losing control of its light asset operation and management platform.
Since then, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has gradually begun to "de-Wang Jianlin". In September 2024, Huang Dewei, Partner and President of China Region of PAG, took over as chairman and legal representative of Dalian Xindameng and Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management;
In March 2026, Chen Qi from the PAG camp replaced Wanda veteran Wang Zhibin to become the legal representative and manager of Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management.
At the same time, over the years, the companies under Dalian Wanda Commercial Management that hold shares in Xindameng have been successively selling shares and introducing new shareholders. According to incomplete statistics on industrial and commercial information by media, as of mid-2026, the equity of Xindameng held directly and indirectly by Dalian Wanda Commercial Management has dropped to less than 30%.
Therefore, the Wanda system is no longer the largest shareholder of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management. Wang Jianlin is less of a boss coming back than a "senior employee".
But from another perspective, although Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has lost control, it is still one of the few core assets in the Wanda system that can still be led by "our own people".
After all, the PAG camp manages the capital rhythm, and the actual operation of Wanda Plazas still has to be done by the Wanda team. Only this time, Wang Jianlin is facing a situation far more complex than it was 14 years ago.
Wang Jianlin returns to the front line
It must be admitted that over the past four years, although Wanda has never been able to get out of the quagmire, every step Wang Jianlin has taken has been decisive.
When Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management fell into the bet crisis, Wang Jianlin decisively chose to transfer control to preserve the survival of the platform.
In the past few years, Wang Jianlin has also been willing to "cut off the arm to survive":
Sold more than 80 Wanda Plazas, raising more than 90 billion yuan in funds; transferred control of Wanda Film to China Ruyi, cashing out about 4.4 billion yuan; sold Wanda Hotel Management Company to Tongcheng Travel for 2.63 billion yuan...
But even so, Wanda's path to debt repayment is still long.
As of the end of June 2024, according to the "2024 Interim Report on Corporate Bonds of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management Group Co., Ltd.", the interest-bearing liabilities of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management on a consolidated basis are close to 140 billion yuan.
However, the debts have not been paid off yet, and the creditors are still on the way. This year, Yonghui Superstores and Suning.com respectively claimed 3.8 billion yuan and 1.747 billion yuan of creditor's rights from Wanda. Both debts originated from Dalian Wanda Commercial Management selling equity to retail enterprises such as Yonghui and Suning to raise funds in 2018, but later the equity repurchase obligation was triggered due to the failure of the bet, and Wanda failed to pay off the relevant amounts.
According to reports from multiple media, as of May 2025, if Wanda's related debts are included, the actual liabilities of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management may exceed 320 billion yuan; as of the beginning of 2026, the total liabilities of Wanda Group may be as high as about 600 billion yuan.
There is no exact figure for Wanda's total debt, but it is certain that in the face of hundreds of billions of yuan in debt, relying solely on "selling off assets" to pay off debts is ultimately a drop in the bucket.
What Wanda sells are assets that are currently sold at a steep discount; what it carries are commitments signed back at the peak of the capital market boom. Using today's assets to fill yesterday's debts is destined not to be an equal match.
Worse still, the cost of borrowing to stay afloat is also soaring.
On January 30, 2026, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management issued a $360 million senior secured bond in the offshore market with a coupon rate of 12.75%, which is far higher than the average level of Chinese real estate US dollar bonds. Wanda said it was "trading a certain cost for a time window".
Neither selling assets nor borrowing to stay afloat is likely to ease Wanda's debt pressure. At this time, Wang Jianlin's return has another layer of meaning.
It is worth noting that in the past three years, the chairman of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management has experienced three changes: Xiao Guangrui, Zhang Chunyuan, and Chen Hongtao, all of whom can be called "Wanda veterans".
Therefore, even if Wang Jianlin did not return to the front line, Dalian Wanda Commercial Management would still be very stable. However, Wang Jianlin personally taking charge can fully coordinate internal and external resources of the group, directly make decisions on matters that require long-term negotiations, and improve cross-entity decision-making efficiency.
In addition, Wanda is still facing severe debt resolution pressure at present. The founder's return not only demonstrates Wanda's positive attitude in solving debts, but also is expected to accelerate the implementation of asset disposal and debt negotiation.
In simple terms, some things still have to rely on Wang Jianlin's "personal prestige" to win more trust and recognition in the industry.
What else can Wanda do?
However, no matter for debt repayment or promoting the sustainable development of Wanda, "selling off assets" is not a long-term solution. The key is to push Wanda back on the development track and give it the ability to "generate blood on its own".
At present, Wang Jianlin is also trying to find a new way out for Wanda.
On the one hand, he is looking for new possibilities in the cultural tourism market.
Wanda's cultural tourism layout did not start now, but in the early stage, the main model was "funding tourism through property sales". Although it invested in a series of resort projects, it was essentially dominated by real estate sales.
This model naturally worked perfectly during the upward cycle of the real estate industry. But as the real estate cycle shifts, houses are no longer easy to sell, and tourism cannot generate returns for a long time, this model gradually fails to operate.
Since 2017, Wanda has begun to sell off cultural tourism projects on a large scale, selling 91% of the equity of 13 cultural tourism projects including Xishuangbanna Wanda Cultural Tourism and Nanchang Wanda Cultural Tourism to Sunac; selling 77 hotels to R&F at a 40% discount to their book net value.
But since last year, Wang Jianlin has been active again on the front line of cultural tourism: from the Dushanzi Grand Canyon and the World Devil City in Xinjiang; to the Daxiaojing Scenic Area in Luodian, Guizhou, the Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge, and Anshun Ancient City; and recently appearing at the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Dali...
Wang Jianlin's son Wang Sicong also signed a cultural tourism project with a total investment of about 3.7 billion yuan with the Tai'an Municipal Government of Shandong Province in 2024 through his subsidiary "Beijing Huanju Commercial Management", which is planned to be built as a ski resort.
Wang Jianlin has not completely given up his "cultural tourism dream", but the strategy has changed - from "doing cultural tourism for the sake of selling properties" to settling down to screen projects that have real vitality, and making cultural tourism a sustainable business.
On the other hand, he continues to optimize the operating efficiency of Wanda Plazas.
In September this year, Xu Fen, who has been deeply engaged in the financial line in the Wanda system, officially became the first female CEO of Wanda Commercial Management. Wang Jianlin's intention is obvious: compared with continuous expansion, the profitability of Wanda Plazas is a more important matter.
At present, there are more than 520 Wanda Plazas across the country. With such a huge volume, it no longer conforms to the current trend to achieve expansion through heavy assets;
On the contrary, having Xu Fen, who has a financial background, focus on cash flow and costs, and help every Wanda Plaza reduce costs and increase efficiency through refined operations, is the foundation for Wanda to "survive" at present.
In addition, Wanda is also actively adjusting the layout of Wanda Plazas: in 2025, Wanda closed 35 Wanda Plazas; in 2026, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management plans to open 19 new Wanda Plazas, of which more than 60% of the stores will be opened in third- and fourth-tier markets.
Wanda is re-fighting the commercial management battle, closing down old Wanda Plazas with poor benefits on the one hand, and actively exerting efforts in the sinking markets where retail is relatively blank, and activating the popularity of shopping malls through activities such as "Wanda Super Brand Day".
According to reports from multiple media, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management achieved revenue of 28.49 billion yuan and net profit of 7.97 billion yuan in 2025, with the occupancy rate remaining above 97%. This performance is the