Wanda finalises sale of $1bn mega-projects
Companies linked to one of China’s most controversial businessmen, billionaire Huang Xiangmo, have outlaid more than $1 billion to buy two major development sites from an arm of troubled Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group.
The deal, first revealed by The Australian in December and reported again earlier this month, will see the controversial operation take control of two mega projects, one on the Gold Coast and one in Sydney.
A Yuhu-linked unit, AWH Investment Group Pty Ltd, will buy the two sites from the famed Wanda conglomerate, for a total of $1.13 billion in equity and assumed debt.
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Wanda will receive $315 million from the sale and the Yuhu linked company will also repay $815.1 million in debt, the Hong Kong-listed Wanda Hotel Development Co Ltd says.
Chinese property developer Yuhu was linked to a donations scandal that engulfed the Labor Party last month and, separately, former NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal, left the group.
Roozendaal, previously the group’s chief executive, resigned from Yuhu on December 4 on Sam Dastyari’s last sitting week in the Senate, saying he had decided to resign to pursue other opportunities.
The Jewel development on the Gold Coast.
In 2014, Dastyari declared the Yuhu Group helped settle a legal matter for him reportedly costing about $5000, leading to his parliamentary resignation over his dealings with the Chinese businessman.
The Australian revealed that Yuhu was pursuing the purchase of Dalian Wanda’s flagship Sydney asset, Gold Fields House, in December, with the deal being watched by regulators both in Australia and mainland China.
Wanda was planning to develop the site in One Circular Quay, which would house a luxury hotel, 186 apartments and a retail site.
But the company, controlled by Wang Jianlin, one of the world’s richest men, has come under scrutiny from Chinese authorities who are concerned about the rapid and leveraged expansion overseas by some companies.
The Australian reported earlier this month that Yuhu was also in talks to buy Wanda’s Gold Coast site, with the total value of the deal to top $1 billion.
Yuhu insisted last week that no transaction was about to take place.
Wanda had wanted to offload the sites, at 1 Alfred St, Circular Quay in Sydney and the Jewel site on the Gold Coast, for some time but also consistently denied a deal was in play.
– with Lisa Allen
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
