Wanda's mall unit delays US$3b Hong Kong IPO

[BEIJING] Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group 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 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, a different person said.

Deliberations are ongoing and the IPO could resume if markets improve, the people said. An external representative for Wanda declined to comment.

The unit's IPO could have raised about US$3 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. Asian private equity firm PAG, property developer Country Garden Holdings and technology company Tencent Holdings were among the firms weighing joining a pre-IPO funding round of about US$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, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse Group are joint sponsors of the offering, according to pre-listing documents filed with the Hong Kong exchange in October. BLOOMBERG