Former Vanke northern China head Mao Daqing wants to take on WeWork
China’s largest developer scored its biggest profits ever in 2015, but still fell short of analyst expectations. Meanwhile local competition for WeWork readies for the US coworking giant’s market entry with a fresh round of venture capital. Read on for all these stories and more.
China Vanke Sets Profit Record But Misses Forecasts
China Vanke, the country’s largest property developer, said its core profit rose 13.1 percent in 2015 to a new record, slightly below forecasts, helped by a resurgence in China property sales that has left some government officials concerned a real estate bubble may be forming.
In a statement, the developer said its core profit, excluding items such as sales of non-current assets, grew to a record of 17.6 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) last year from 15.6 billion yuan in 2014. That was slightly below an average forecast of 18 billion yuan in a poll of 15 analysts by Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate. Read more>>
Vanke Alum’s Co-Working Startup UrWork Raises $31M
UrWork, a co-working office space start-up founded a year ago by former China Vanke executive Mao Daqing, has completed RMB200 million (US$31 million) series A+ round of financing from undisclosed investors, according to Chinese media reports.
The new financing round took place six months after the start-up raised RMB200 million from Gopher Asset Management Co., Ltd. and an obscure Chinese investment firm. Read more>>
Anbang’s Wu Dubbed the “Buffett of Beijing”
He is the would-be Buffett of Beijing: the man out to build a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of China.
In just over a decade, Wu Xiaohui has transformed his company, Anbang Insurance Group Co., from an obscure player in China’s insurance industry into a juggernaut with global ambitions.
Now, Wu’s rapid rise is turning heads as China projects its money and influence around the world with new force. Read more>>
Wang Jianlin Will Inject Movie-Making Division into Wanda Cinema Line
China’s Dalian Wanda group is to inject film production unit Wanda Pictures into its Wanda Cinema Line theaters division. The move is part of an ongoing reshuffle of its film businesses that will follow completion of the $3.5 billion acquisition of Legendary Entertainment.
Wanda last week revealed that Wanda Pictures and its physical studio operations in Qingdao would receive a total of $384 million capital injection from a friendly property company Oceanwide. Read more>>
Why CITIC’s Shift Out of Residential Real Estate Isn’t Enough
China’s state-run enterprises may not always reform the way investors want them to. But, as an asset swap between two of China’s largest such companies shows, they can still better each other’s lives.
Citic, the country’s oldest state-run conglomerate, said Monday that it would offload almost all of its residential property to China Overseas Land and Investment, one of the largest state property developers. COLI would pay $4.8 billion, not including the value of debt. In exchange, Citic receives a 10% stake in COLI, plus $950 million worth of commercial property. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter for headlines as they happen.
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