Wanda Is Ordered to Pay Suning.Com USD260 Million for Breaching Share Buyback Contract
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.The Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court ordered Wanda Group to pay Suning.Com CNY1.7 billion (USD260 million) for breaching a 2018 share buyback contract regarding Wanda Commercial Management. The ruling requires payment within 10 days plus interest, with Wanda also covering CNY8.8 million in legal fees. This dispute arose after Wanda failed to list the subsidiary on the Chinese mainland as agreed. Suning.Com's stock rose following the announcement.
(Yicai) June 30 -- The Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court has issued a first-instance judgment in the dispute between Wanda Group and Suning.Com, ordering the former to pay the latter CNY1.7 billion (USD260 million) for a contract breach of a 2018 share buyback deal.
The cash-strapped Chinese property developer should pay Suning.Com the CNY1.7 billion in 10 days from the date of judgment, as well as the delayed payment losses calculated at 1.5 times the one-year loan prime rate from Feb. 26, 2024, to Feb. 13, 2026, Suning.Com announced yesterday, citing the court ruling.
Sunin.Com’s stock [SHE: 002024] was trading up 2.6 percent at CNY1.18 (17 US cents) as of 1.55 p.m. in Shenzhen today, after earlier gaining as much as 5.2 percent.
The Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court also ruled that Wanda bears the CNY8.8 million (USD1.3 million) case acceptance fee, the Beijing-based retail giant added, noting that all of its other claims were dismissed.
Wanda’s property management arm Wanda Commercial Management Group went public in Hong Kong in 2014, but its founder Wang Jianlin thought that the stock was undervalued, so he took the firm private to prepare for a listing in the Chinese mainland.
As part of the privatization deal, Tencent Holdings, Suning.Com, Sunac China, and JD.Com spent a total of CNY34 billion (USD5 billion) to purchase a 14 percent stake in Wanda Commercial Management, Wanda said in January 2018. Of this, Suning paid CNY9.5 billion for a 4 percent stake.
However, Wanda Commercial Management failed to go public in the mainland.
In October 2024, Suning.Com announced it had filed a lawsuit, alleging that Wanda and Wanda Commercial Management had violated the terms of their cooperation agreement. Suning.Com claimed that Wanda owed it CNY5 billion worth of share buyback fees.
In the first quarter of the year, Suning.Com reported a net profit of CNY28.9 million (USD4.3 million), up 61 percent from a year earlier. However, after excluding non-recurring gains and losses, the company actually recorded a loss of CNY861 million (USD130 million), widening 334 percent in the period.
Editor: Futura Costaglione