Will Wang Jianlin’s Big European Deal Be A French Theme Park?

Wang Jianlin is touring Europe this week on a promotional tour and China’s richest man has promised to announce a major deal between his visits to the British Museum, Oxford University and other European sites.

Now it appears that Wang’s big revelation will be a multi-billion Euro investment in a theme park outside of Paris.

The theme park deal would be part of the Europa City project being developed by France’s Auchan Group in the town of Gonesse, 16 kilometers northeast of Paris.

Theme Park Deal Follows Wanda’s Path Towards Entertainment Empire

While Wanda has yet to officially announce a theme park deal, and has not made any investments in France to date, the project, which was first reported by Bloomberg, fits with the company’s mission to build a global entertainment empire.

Just last month Wanda completed the $3.5 billion takeover of Hollywood film production company Legendary Entertainment, and property developer turned multi-industry marketing conglomerate. (This week Wanda was reported to be offering a stake its Wanda Pictures subsidiary, which now includes Legendary, to investors in China for $1.5 billion in a deal that values the recently formed company at $5.3 billion.

Paris Project Shares Wanda’s Goal of Taking on Disney

Should Wanda’s European theme park project be confirmed it would mean that China’s richest man is joining forces with a developer that shares his goal of outdoing Disney.

The 800,000 square metre Europa City project, which is due to start construction in 2019 and includes residential and commercial real estate developments, shopping malls, a golf course and an integrated transit system is said to be designed “to imitate the intimacy of Parisian streets and streetlife.”

The developers are touting the project as the “first destination dedicated to free time in Europe,” and plan to host 31 million visitors by 2020 – more than Disneyland Paris.

This determination to pull more tourists than Disney echoes Wang Jianlin’s 2014 vow that his theme park in Wuxi, Jiangsu province would attract more people and bring in more revenue than Disney’s $5.5 billion resort in Shanghai.

Wang, who made his fortune building China’s largest chain of malls, has pledged to develop a cultural division to his company that includes theme parks, as part of his mission to transform Wanda into a $200 billion company by 2020.

In addition to the Wuxi project, Wanda last year opened a 5.3 square kilometre park in the city of Xishuangbanna in Yunna province, and currently is building a movie-centric theme park in Qingdao that incorporates a film studio and a private hospital. The company also has park destinations in Wuhan and is said to be opening 100 “mini-amusement parks” around China.

Wanda Stumbles in Europe

In Europe, however, Wang and Wanda have faced some struggles.

Wanda’s cultural venture in France would follow the developer’s bumbling entrance into Spain where it bought the historic Edificio Espana building in Madrid for $358 million in 2014. When Wanda later proposed to tear down and then “rebuild” the 63-year-old landmark, the suggestion was rebuffed by city authorities. Wang Jianlin later denied reports that he had complained of being treated “like a dog” by the Madrid leadership.

Even in the UK, where Wang has previously praised the business climate, Wanda’s $1 billion mixed-use development project at One Nine Elms in London has been plagued by slow progress, and the developer is said to be retendering for a contractor in a bid to get its inaugural European project back on track.