China’s richest man says earmarks $ 5 b-$ 10 b a year for outbound investment

Los Angeles (Variety.com): Wang Jianlin, chairman of China’s Dalian Wanda Group, says his conglomerate is planning overseas deals worth $ 5-10 billion a year. The main focus will be on entertainment and sports.

Wang made his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he is one of a delegation of top Chinese business leaders. His comments were first reported by Reuters.

Wang’s continued bullishness follows a year in which Wanda made a succession of high profile deals including the acquisition of Legendary Entertainment, Carmike Cinemas, and Dick Clark Productions. Those deals received growing pushback from increasingly hostile political forces in the US. Most of the deals had been announced before the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the US Wanda also bought Europe’s largest cinema chain, Odeon-UCI.

But the geopolitical context in 2017 already looks very different from last year. At the same time as Trump’s pre-inauguration rhetoric has heightened xenophobia in the US, the Chinese government has also signalled that it too wants a slowdown in the export of capital from China.

Despite those hurdles, Wang said that the US would remain his priority target for expansion, followed by Europe. A very large tourism project in Australia is also envisaged, Wang said, as the country is among the favorites of Chinese tourists.

The Chinese delegation at Davos is headed by President Xi Jinping. Other top Chinese business leaders in Davos include Alibaba chairman Jack Ma.