Former Dalian Wanda President Becomes Third Wang Jianlin Associate to Vanish in 2023

Ding Benxi, a retired former president of Dalian Wanda and current non-executive director of the Chinese developer’s hotel arm, has become the third Wanda personality to go missing this year as the group scrambles to meet debt obligations and launch a stalled mall IPO.

The board of Wanda Hotel Development has been unable to contact Ding since 1 September, it said Monday in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange. The company, which operates more than 100 hotels across China, has called a special general meeting for the purpose of removing Ding and appointing group veteran Liu Yingwu as an executive director.

“The board is of the view that the removal of Mr Ding is in the interests of the company and its shareholders as a whole, and if the said removal takes effect, it will not have any material adverse impact on the operations of the group,” said Wanda Hotel chairman Ning Qifeng.

The decision follows the disappearance of two other Wanda-linked figures: Qu Dejun, the vice chairman of Hong Kong-listed Seazen Group and previous holder of top management positions at Wanda; and Liu Haibo, a senior vice president and head of Wanda’s investment division.

Fading From View

In February, Seazen announced that it had been unable to contact or reach Qu, who also serves as a non-executive director of the Shanghai-based builder.

Citing a person with knowledge of the situation, mainland news site Caixin reported at the time that Qu was assisting authorities in an investigation involving his Wanda career. Another outlet, The Paper, cited a person close to Wanda as saying that Qu’s disappearance might be related to an investigation of his career there.

Qu was last seen in public on 16 January when he attended a ceremony for a Seazen business partnership in the southern Chinese city of Xiamen, Caixin reported. Seazen told Caixin that Qu’s absence was for personal reasons unrelated to the company.

In August, Wanda sources told Mingtiandi that Liu had been arrested in a case linked to the company’s internal anti-corruption efforts, confirming news first reported in The Paper. Multiple other Wanda team members were also said to have been detained.

Ding joined Wanda in 2001 and has been a non-executive director of Wanda Hotel since 2013. He also served as Dalian Wanda president from 2009 until leaving the post in 2020 at the standard retirement age of 65, to be succeeded by Jie Qi.

The special meeting to consider Ding’s removal and Liu’s appointment is scheduled for 10 January, Wanda Hotel said.

Wang’s High-Wire Act

The missing-person reports have played out as chairman Wang Jianlin, once China’s richest man, has struggled to list Wanda’s shopping mall unit on the Hong Kong exchange ahead of a year-end deadline after several failed attempts this year.

Wanda announced last week that a creditor group led by Hong Kong private equity shop PAG would reinvest in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group to the tune of a 60 percent equity stake, with Wang’s share declining from 78 percent to 40 percent. Minority shareholders including troubled developer Country Garden and supermarket operator Yonghui Superstores have agreed to sell their stakes in the mall business.

In late November, a Wanda subsidiary gained early consent approval from bondholders to delay by 11 months the payment of a $600 million offshore bond, giving the group a respite amid its IPO woes.

Wanda Properties, a unit of Dalian Wanda Commercial Management, said creditors holding 99.3 percent of the bonds voted in favour of extending the repayment deadline of the 7.25 percent notes to 29 December 2024 from the already extended maturity date of 29 January 2024, according to a bourse filing.