Wanda denies facing cash crunch after blog post about Bandar Malaysia development

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 14): China’s Wanda Group has denied allegations by a blogger that the company is facing a cash crunch, with assets having shrunk by more than half, Bloomberg reported today.

Earlier this week, the WeChat account named "ibaoyouqu" wrote that Wanda had been punished by the Chinese government because it outbid state-owned companies for the Bandar Malaysia property development.

Wanda disputed the allegations and has also called them defamatory.

"Wanda has over 200 billion yuan (RM122.5 billion) in its cash accounts, and over 200 billion yuan in revenue this year. All operations are normal, with no debt defaults," Wanda replied on its website, Bloomberg reported.

“Wanda has very low employee turnover among big Chinese private enterprises, contrary to the blog, which said that Wanda’s average turnover period was 13 months,” Wanda added.

Wanda has since reported "ibaoyouqu" to the police.

In May, there were media reports that negotiations for Dalian “to take a central role as master developer (of the Bandar Malaysia development) have reached an advanced stage and the agreement is awaiting approval from China's financial regulators”.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak even met with Wanda founder Wang Jianlin on May 13 in the company’s headquarters in Beijing when the former led a delegation to attend China’s Belt and Road Forum.

However, the company abandoned its bid for the project in July, just three months after being considered a front runner.

Wanda were among five Chinese private companies targeted by Beijing’s regulators in a crackdown on overseas acquisitions.

Bandar Malaysia will be developed on the 197ha of the former Sungai Besi air force base and will be the location for the terminus of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail.