China's leading developer Wanda Group's commercial property unit is scheduled to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange next month, raising over $10 billion, which may enable Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin to reclaim his place as China's richest man, media said Friday.
The unit, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, is set to kick-start a global road show at the beginning of next month, and will be listed on the Hong Kong bourse late in the month, Shanghai-based news portal thepaper.cn reported.
In 2013, Wang topped the Forbes China Rich List with 86 billion yuan ($14 billion) of wealth. But as e-commerce giant Alibaba Group landed on the New York Stock Exchange in September in a grand offering that raised over $25 billion, the group's executive chairman Jack Ma Yun topped this year's Forbes list with 119.3 billion yuan of wealth.
A prospectus released in September shows that currently Wang and his son Wang Sicong own a 100 percent stake in Wanda Group, thus after the Hong Kong IPO, Wang may again become the richest man in China, the report said.
"Wanda could also be a mega deal, and it will interest investors," Li Daxiao, director of research with Shenzhen-based Yingda Securities Co, told the Global Times Friday.
The September prospectus said that money raised in the listing will be mainly used to fund the company's commercial projects. Wang Danqing, a partner at Beijing-based ACME consultancy, said that besides benefitting the company's cash flow, the Hong Kong listing could also improve the company's image and management which will also benefit Wanda's overseas expansion.