While ads for Wanda are lighting up the perimeter of soccer matches at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, creditors for the Chinese conglomerate are grappling with the firm’s financial troubles off the pitch.
(Bloomberg) — While ads for Wanda are lighting up the perimeter of soccer matches at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, creditors for the Chinese conglomerate are grappling with the firm’s financial troubles off the pitch.
Dalian Wanda Group Co. is about half way through a sponsorship deal with FIFA that runs until after the men’s tournament in 2030. In addition to pitch-side ad space, Wanda’s name and logo have been the backdrop at news conferences since the tournament began last week, alongside those of long-term backers like Coca-Cola Co. and Adidas AG.
Concerns have been mounting for years over the health of China’s property sector amid soaring debt levels, making Wanda’s prominence at the World Cup all the more striking. Wanda is one of the few Chinese junk-rated developers to have so far not defaulted on public dollar debt, though it only narrowly avoided doing so this week with a last-minute payment for a $400 million note.
Wanda Group didn’t immediately offer a comment when reached.
2 Billion Viewers
More than 2 billion people around the world are expected to watch the Women’s World Cup that runs until Aug. 20, up from 1.1 billion viewers at the previous competition in 2019, Euromonitor International estimated.
Wanda is known in China for its huge shopping complexes with cinemas and hotels. But since it signed the deal with FIFA in 2016 its portfolio has changed considerably, having sold off hotel and theme-park assets as Beijing moved to tamp down the global ambitions of some firms.
But Wanda’s tie-up with FIFA shows that its interest in having its brand play on a huge global platform hasn’t waned, according to Hans Westerbeek, professor of international sport business at Victoria University in Melbourne.
“Wanda and FIFA to me is simply code for we think football is an amazing platform for us to profile ourselves on,” said Westerbeek. “It is a microcosm of the changing world order playing out in sport.”
–With assistance from Emma Dong.
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