Wanda owner Wang Jianlin aims to expand its cinema arm worldwide. (Photo : Reuters)
The headquarters of Dalian Wanda Group, the country’s leading realty company, will be moved from Beijing to Shanghai, according to insiders as cited by local journal, The Paper.
A Wanda insider said that Wang Jianlin, the founder of the firm and is currently the richest person in Asia, is very much fond of Shanghai, adding that the company will likely be located in the Pudong business district.
This news is favorable to the local government as Wanda is known as a major taxpayer, contributing 27.42 billion yuan last year.
The move is said to be part of Wanda's foray into the financial industry. Wanda Finance will be located in Shanghai and its Web-based financial service was recently incorporated in Pudong with a capital of 400 million yuan.
Company insiders stated that Wanda's financial undertaking is crowd funding.
Meanwhile, industry players have remarked that Shanghai can provide Wanda a huge potential for its realty business.
In a recent annual China Green Companies Summit, Wang stated that the firm plans to build more plazas in the city, making the already-built eight plazas to 20 for the next several years.
Despite the relocation of the headquarters, the company still has No. 538, Changjiang Road, Xigang District, Dalian, Liaoning Province as its registered address.
Wanda was first established in 1988 in Dalian when Wang left the army and built a company that will cater to an urban renovation project in the Liaoning port city. First of his business endeavors, the venture generated 10 million yuan worth of profit.
Before expanding his realty business across the country, Wang first entered the industry in 1993 in Guangzhou.
Wang moved Wanda's headquarters to Beijing, China's capital, in 2008 to recruit the best talents in the field.
Wang eyes to expand his conglomerate's size to $200 billion in market value, $200 billion in assets, $100 billion in sales, and $10 billion in profit for the next five years.
