Commercial property developer Dalian Wanda Group announced Wednesday that it would acquire a majority stake in British luxury yacht maker Sunseeker International Ltd and develop a property project in Britain, indicating that the company has accelerated its globalization steps.
Privately run Wanda announced that it would spend 320 million pounds ($500 million) to acquire a 91.81 percent stake in Sunseeker, while the management of the yacht firm would acquire the remaining 8.19 percent.
The deal has been approved by Chinese authorities and is expected to close by mid-August, the company said.
Wanda currently needs to buy at least 30 yachts for its three yacht clubs in Dalian, Qingdao and Sanya, but it is more worthwhile to buy a yacht firm with healthy financial performance, Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, told a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday.
Wanda is also considering producing yachts in domestic coastal cities to cater to the booming market, Wang said.
Separately, Wanda announced it would spend around 700 million pounds to develop a real estate project with British property firm Green Property in central London, including a five-star luxury Wanda hotel.
Wang said the company plans to build Wanda hotels in eight to 10 major overseas cities in the next decade, and will announce a five-star hotel project in central New York later this year.
The two deals, worth around 1 billion pounds, came after Wanda spent $2.6 billion to buy US cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc last year.
Wanda has chosen to start its outbound investment with the world's most developed countries, the US and Britain. Wang said, "This is the direction of Wanda's globalization strategy - targeting markets with developed economies, mature markets and sound legal systems."
Wanda is taking a steady approach to its globalization moves, including both acquisition and direct investment, Wang said.
He believed 100-year-old AMC and 68-year-old Sunseeker would be able to maintain their unique cultures rather than undergo cultural integration with Wanda, and noted that Wanda had appointed only one coordinator so far to AMC and would retain Sunseeker's management team as well.
Wanda is part of a growing trend of Chinese companies showing ambition for globalization.
In 2012 alone, sovereign fund China Investment Corp, State-owned energy enterprise Sinopec and dairy producer Shanghai Bright Dairy Co made takeover deals in Britain.
Despite an increasing number of business opportunities, Chinese companies should consider the risks of overseas takeovers, which include local cultures and legal systems, as well as the right timing to get the best price, Bai Ming, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times Wednesday.
The value of Chinese firms' outbound takeovers increased at an annual average rate of 31 percent from $9.6 billion in 2005 to $63.7 billion in 2012, advisory firm KPMG said in a report on June 7.