Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1667
Wanda’s interest-bearing debt exceeds 200 billion yuan, a nearly four-year high
Wanda has recently received a series of unfavorable news, such as the continued decline in domestic and foreign bond prices, the failure of Zhuhai Wanda’s IPO materials, and rumors of large-scale layoffs. On May 20, Wanda responded to the rumors of large-scale layoffs, saying that the optimization involves individual departments, and there is no large-scale layoffs.
The quality of Wanda Commercial Management itself is actually relatively stable. In the first quarter of this year, it achieved revenue of 12.5 billion yuan and a net profit of 4.487 billion yuan, which is one of the best quarterly performances since 2020.
But cash pressures do exist. As Wanda Commercial Management’s prospectus for listing in Hong Kong has expired three times, the deadline for its listing no later than 2023 is getting closer. If it fails to land on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by then, Wanda will undertake a repurchase commitment of tens of billions of yuan to investors. Adding nearly 10 billion yuan in maturing bonds last year, Wanda’s financial pressure has increased sharply.
According to Wind data, Wanda’s main bond issuer is Dalian Wanda Commercial Management. As of the first quarter of this year, its monetary funds and financial assets that can be quickly realized totaled 63.6 billion yuan, but the company’s loans and other debts that need to be repaid within one year increased to 79.8 billion yuan, including short-term borrowings of 6.8 billion yuan and the current portion of non-current liabilities of 73 billion yuan.
At the end of the quarter, the balance of interest-bearing liabilities of Wanda Commercial Management rose again to 204.432 billion yuan, the highest in nearly five years.
Wanda’s debt repayment pressure has actually increased rapidly in the fourth quarter of last year. At that time, the company’s accumulated non-current liabilities due within one year were about 68.768 billion yuan, a net increase of more than 44 billion yuan from the third quarter. This batch of liabilities includes:
- Long-term loans of 12.114 billion yuan (due within one year, the same below), an increase of 1.382 billion yuan from the end of 2021;
- Bonds payable of 12.467 billion yuan, an increase of 9.041 billion yuan compared with the end of 2021;
- 245 million yuan in lease liabilities, a decrease of 47 million yuan from the end of 2021;
- 43.941 billion yuan in other financing, an increase of 41.376 billion yuan compared with the end of 2021.
According to the notes to Wanda’s audited annual report, the increase in related debts mainly includes the equity repurchase clause for Zhuhai Wanda investors. The agreement stipulates that Zhuhai Wanda needs to complete the IPO in 2023. These investors include Country Garden Property, Shanghai Yunxin, PAG Investment and other institutions. According to Jiemian News, the potential repurchase funds are about 30 billion yuan.
At Wanda’s annual meeting in 2017, Chairman Wang Jianlin said “use all capital means to reduce corporate debt.” At that time, Wanda Group transferred assets such as hotels and cultural tourism to R&F, Sunac and other peers, and returned more than 50 billion yuan in less than a year, quickly reducing the debt ratio, and to some extent helped Wanda escape the real estate industry in the past three years.
But this means that Wanda has much less room to maneuver before the new debt repayment cycle. According to Caixin, Wanda hopes to use all available operating funds to protect its public debt due this year. (Gong Fangyi)
There are more planes and fewer passengers, and China has international air tickets of less than 1,000 yuan
On May 22, a low-priced air ticket to Japan appeared on a third-party booking platform. Spring Airlines’ direct flight from Shanghai to Osaka cost 601 yuan (including tax, the same below) at noon on the 23rd, and Juneyao Airlines’ ticket price for the same route in the afternoon of the same day was 802 yuan. Yuan. At noon on the 23rd, the platform reappeared a 752 yuan air ticket from Shanghai to Osaka at noon the next day.
The ultra-low price may be just a strategy launched due to insufficient occupancy of nearby flights, but the regular fare is still much lower than the previous period. We inquired about the ticket prices for the next half month. The lowest price for domestic airlines flying directly from Shanghai to Tokyo is around 1,352 yuan, and the price of Air China’s direct flight from Beijing to Tokyo is around 1,730 yuan. Foreign airlines are generally more expensive.
Fares to Oceania also fell significantly. On the 25th, Air China’s non-stop flight from Beijing to Sydney only costs 5,951 yuan. A month later, Air China’s fare from Beijing to Sydney is only 2,458 yuan. Cathay Pacific Airways flew from Beijing to Sydney on the 25th, transiting in Hong Kong, China, the whole journey took 14.5 hours, and the price was only 2997 yuan. Two international students told us that before the epidemic, they bought the tickets one month in advance, and the direct flight fare was around 3,000 yuan.
The main reason may be the recovery of capacity, but the demand has not kept up. According to Dongxing Securities, the international airline capacity investment of listed airlines in April has increased to more than 33% of 2019, compared to 23% in March, but the passenger load factor has generally declined, and ticket prices have been under pressure.
According to the data of the airlines in April, the international capacity of Juneyao, Spring, China Southern, and China Eastern Airlines recovered to 95%, 48.8%, 34.7%, and 27.4% of the same period in 2019, respectively, and the passenger traffic volume of international routes recovered to 51.4%, 38.5%, and 31.5%, 18.1%, and the passenger load factor decreased by 23.5%, 11.2%, 8.4%, and 20.3% respectively compared with the same period in 2019.
The industry predicts that before the peak season of summer vacation, airlines will slow down the input of international capacity and give priority to guaranteeing ticket prices. People in the civil aviation industry also told us that May and June are the traditional off-season for outbound travel. In addition, there are still passenger flows who cannot travel due to visas, so the occupancy rate is not high. The airline company will actively promote sales to stimulate purchases, and it will gradually return to normal in late June.
Last month, we introduced the restoration of the international capacity of the three major airlines. We mentioned that the capacity recovery of the routes to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia was relatively fast, while the recovery of the routes to the United States was relatively slow. On May 3, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that Chinese airlines can add four round-trip flights between China and the United States every week, bringing the total to 12. We inquired about the price of the newly added flight half a month later. The fare of China Eastern Airlines direct flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles is 8,469 yuan, and the fare of Air China direct flight from Beijing to New York is 12,187 yuan. (Lin Guangying)
The number of direct flights of some domestic airlines to international cities in the nearby week and the lowest fare (the fare is for reference only):
- Beijing-Tokyo: Air China, 11 flights per week, outbound 2230 yuan, return 3999 yuan;
- Shanghai-Tokyo: spring and autumn, 7 classes per week, 1352 yuan for the outbound journey, 1725 yuan for the return journey;
- Shanghai-Singapore: spring and autumn, 3 classes per week, outbound 549 yuan, return 3500 yuan;
- Guangzhou-Singapore: China Southern Airlines, 14 flights per week, 1,100 yuan for the outbound journey, and about 3,000 yuan for the return journey;
- Beijing-Frankfurt: Air China, 9 flights per week, 6,760 yuan for the outbound journey, and about 12,000 yuan for the return journey;
- Shanghai-Frankfurt: Air China, 11 flights per week, 3290 yuan for the outbound journey and about 7000 yuan for the return journey;
- Beijing-London: Air China, 8 flights per week, 3490 yuan for the outbound journey and about 4000 yuan for the return journey;
- Shanghai-London: Air China, 7 flights per week, 3150 yuan for the outbound journey and 4500 yuan for the return journey;
- Beijing-Sydney: Air China, 4 flights per week, outbound 6668 yuan, return about 5000 yuan;
- Shanghai-Sydney: Eastern Airlines, 7 flights per week, outbound 6468 yuan, return about 4600 yuan;
- Guangzhou-Sydney: China Southern Airlines, 10 flights per week, about 6,000 yuan for the outbound journey, and about 5,000 yuan for the return journey;
EU data protection fine set another record, still received by Meta
Meta was fined 1.2 billion euros for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This surpassed Amazon’s previous fine of 746 million euros and became the heaviest fine issued by the European Union to companies that violated data protection regulations.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has determined that Meta’s transfer of large amounts of personal data of EU users to the United States poses a risk to the fundamental rights and freedoms of EU users. In addition to fines, Meta will prohibit the transfer of any personal data to the United States within five months, and prohibit the illegal processing and storage of personal data of EU users within six months.
According to GDPR regulations, Meta may be fined up to 4 billion US dollars, and the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) finally chose a relatively low fine level. That drew criticism from EU privacy activists and other data watchdogs.
Meta quickly responded that the fine was “unreasonable and unnecessary” and would appeal. Management tried to blame the problem on conflicts between EU and US laws rather than the company’s own actions. Meta previously warned investors that around a tenth of ad revenue would be at risk if EU data transfers were suspended.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which Meta violated, is considered one of the strictest data protection laws in the world and has been in effect since May 2018. In addition, the EU also has multiple data privacy protection laws such as the Cyber Security Directive and the Electronic Privacy Regulation.
Since the European Court of Justice overturned the European and American data sharing agreement in 2020, the frequency and amount of technology companies being regulated and fined in Europe have continued to rise. Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. have been fined repeatedly, with fines ranging from millions to hundreds of millions of euros. The aforementioned Amazon fine was also for breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. (Intern Fu Xiaoyu)
How to prevent AI fraud?
Recently, the police in Inner Mongolia cracked a case of telecommunications fraud using AI technology. The victim, Mr. Guo, was defrauded of RMB 4.3 million within 10 minutes. The related topic “AI fraud is breaking out across the country” was posted on the Weibo hot search yesterday. “Wan Lian Cai” noticed that this Weibo topic has not been displayed this afternoon.
In this case, the scammer used AI face-changing and onomatopoeia technology to pretend to be Mr. Guo’s friend and gain his trust through WeChat video, and then defrauded the transfer funds on the grounds that “the bidding in other places urgently needs deposit posting”. Another common deception is that scammers use AI-synthesized indecent videos (or images) to blackmail after obtaining private information such as photos, videos, and address books of victims through illegal software and links. (Here is a recent experience of being cheated by a programmer from a big factory.)
The amount of telecommunications and network fraud filed in China every year amounts to hundreds of billions of yuan. According to data from the Ministry of Public Security, from April 2021 to July 2022, the National Anti-Fraud Center intercepted a total of 2.81 billion fraudulent calls, 3.36 billion text messages, blocked 4 million fraudulent domain name URLs, and urgently intercepted and stopped payment of 551.8 billion funds involved in the case Yuan.
Compared with traditional SMS and phone scams, the realistic face-changing and onomatopoeia technology in the AI era has given scammers more opportunities to take advantage of it, and it has also increased the difficulty for ordinary people to prevent being cheated. In addition to protecting basic personal information and verifying the other party’s identity through multiple channels and private questions when it comes to money transactions, you should also avoid clicking on unfamiliar links and downloading unfamiliar software on weekdays, and carefully grant apps with cameras, photo albums, and microphones. , address book, location and other permissions. (Gong Fangyi)
OTHER NEWS
Aliyun layoffs 7%?
On the afternoon of May 23, domestic social networks and multiple media reported that Alibaba Cloud wanted to lay off 7% of its employees. The latter responded that “it is just a normal organization and personnel optimization.” In the fiscal year ending March 2023, Alibaba Cloud achieved revenue of 77.2 billion yuan, accounting for about 9% of the group’s revenue. Alibaba Group has decided to completely spin off this business, which has invested tens of billions of dollars, and no longer hold shares in it. The market speculates that this round of layoffs may also be in preparation for the split of cloud computing and the subsequent IPO.
Tencent integrates game-related businesses, and Huya has a new chairman.
“LatePost” exclusively learned that Lin Songtao, vice president of Tencent, has been appointed as the chairman of Huya (HUYA.US). Huya is China’s leading independent game live broadcast company. Its products include Huya Live, games and pan-entertainment live broadcast platform Nimo TV focusing on Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Tencent is its controlling shareholder. Lin Songtao is good at doing platform business, and Huya is an important publicity platform for the game industry. Huya has gathered most of the top game anchors and bought the copyrights of many game events, thus retaining gamers. As the game industry resumes growth, Huya will face the next test of transforming into a game community.
Vipshop will reverse the decline and expects revenue growth of 10% to 15% in the second quarter.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of active users, GMV, and revenue of Vipshop all achieved year-on-year growth, reversing the downward trend of the past five consecutive quarters. Among them, the number of active users increased by 4% year-on-year to 43.8 million, and revenue increased by 9.1% year-on-year to 27.5 billion yuan, but it was still slightly lower than the same period in 2021. The management mentioned that the sales of wearable products were strong in the first quarter, and the performance of several cutting-edge brands doubled. During the Spring Festival, the sales of customized suits of beauty brands were also booming. It is expected that the revenue in the second quarter will increase by 10% to 15% year-on-year.
Dingdong Maicai shut down its Sichuan and Chongqing sites.
On May 22, Dingdong Maicai announced on the app homepage that it would adjust the operation of front warehouses in Sichuan and Chongqing, and the relevant sites would stop delivery services. The company said that the main reason for the withdrawal was to reduce costs and increase efficiency. In November 2020, Dingdong Maicai, which was still accelerating its expansion across the country at the time, took Chengdu as its first stop in the southwest market. Over the past two years, the company’s environment and goals have changed. In the middle of last year, Dingdong Maicai has withdrawn from Xiamen, Tianjin, Zhuhai and other cities.
Cathay Pacific says it has fired three flight attendants who allegedly discriminated against passengers on flight CX987.
A few days ago, a Cathay Pacific passenger posted a post saying that when he took a Cathay Pacific flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong, China last Sunday, he saw the flight attendant constantly complaining to the passengers in English and Cantonese. For example, when a passenger wanted to take a blanket, the flight attendant said “If you cannot speak blanket, you cannot have it”, or after the Cantonese broadcast, said passengers “can’t understand human language”. The netizen said it had been recorded and had informed the purser that he would formally complain. Cathay Pacific responded on the evening of the 22nd that it attaches great importance to the incident and will seriously investigate and deal with it.
On the evening of the 23rd, Cathay Pacific Airways issued a second notice, suspending the flight missions of the flight attendants, immediately launching an internal investigation, and will announce the results within three days. At around 10 o’clock that night, Cathay Pacific announced that it had completed the investigation of the incident and dismissed the three flight attendants involved in the incident in accordance with the company’s rules and regulations. Cathay Pacific CEO Lin Shaobo said that on behalf of Cathay Pacific, we once again express our sincere apologies to the affected passengers and all sectors of society for the experience of the passengers on Cathay Pacific flight CX987 on May 21.
Sales fell, and Wuling Hongguang lowered the starting price to 29,800 yuan.
Starting from May 22, the guide price of Wuling Hongguang MINI EV family has been lowered by up to 13,000 yuan, and the price of Hongguang MINI EV standard version has been reduced to 29,800 yuan for a limited time. Wuling said that this round of price adjustments is in response to the call for “cars going to the countryside”, but the decline in sales may also be one of the main reasons for the price adjustments. In the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, Hongguang MINI EV sales fell by 22.1% and 26.3% year-on-year respectively.
BYD is evaluating the feasibility of building factories in Europe, considering France, Germany and other countries.
French media reported that France is discussing with BYD to build a factory, but it is still hesitating about the location of the European factory. Spain and Germany are also among the options. BYD said it is currently evaluating the feasibility of building a passenger car factory in Europe and looking for a suitable location. BYD has announced plans to sell electric vehicles in many European countries such as Britain, France and Germany. In addition, it also hopes to gain a larger market share in Southeast Asia, Latin America and other regions. In the first four months of this year, BYD’s overseas sales were close to last year’s annual export sales.
The price of the photovoltaic supply chain has dropped, and the installed capacity of photovoltaics nationwide this year may exceed expectations.
According to the National Energy Administration, from January to April this year, the country’s newly installed photovoltaic power generation capacity was 48.31GW, an increase of 186% year-on-year, more than half of last year. In 2022, China’s newly installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 87.41GW, a new high. Thanks to the price drop in the photovoltaic supply chain since the fourth quarter of last year, which has boosted end demand, the industry expects that the installed capacity of photovoltaics this year may exceed expectations.
With fewer high-rollers, the revenue of casinos in Macau, China, in the first quarter was less than half that of the same period in 2019.
In the first quarter of this year, the profits of the six casino operators in Macau, China, all turned positive, with a total revenue of 34.64 billion patacas (about 33.66 billion Hong Kong dollars), less than half of the same period in 2019. Among them, VIP gamblers (with a betting amount of more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars) accounted for less than a quarter of their income, which was over 70% before. However, MGM Resorts said that the current income of ordinary gamblers has exceeded that before the epidemic.
Zoom is still growing, but has stabilized in the single digits.
Zoom’s revenue in the quarter ended April 30 increased by 3% year-on-year to US$1.105 billion, a record low growth rate and four consecutive quarters of single-digit growth. The revenue of enterprise business (large enterprises) increased by 13%, accounting for about 60% of the total, and the number of enterprise customers increased by 9% year-on-year to 200,000. Online business (individuals and small and medium-sized businesses) saw an 8% drop in revenue. The company slightly raised its full-year forecast, and the stock price closed up about 3% on the day.
Japan will restrict the export of 23 types of advanced semiconductor equipment.
On May 23, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan announced the amendment to the foreign exchange law, adding 23 types of advanced semiconductor equipment such as cleaning, film formation, and heat treatment to the export control objects. If equipment manufacturers want to export related equipment to any region, they must Obtain prior permission. On the same day, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce responded that this move is a serious departure from free trade and international economic and trade rules, and China firmly opposes it.
The world’s major semiconductor equipment manufacturers expect revenue to decline in the second quarter.
The weakness in the semiconductor market has been passed on to upstream equipment manufacturers. According to statistics from Nikkei, seven of the world’s nine major semiconductor equipment manufacturers expect their revenues to decrease year-on-year in the second quarter. For example, Lam Research, a major U.S. equipment manufacturer, expects revenue to decline by 33% year-on-year (median) in the second quarter. The company said it is still difficult to determine the timing of customer investment recovery.
Quanta, a supplier to Tesla and Apple, is investing $1 billion in Mexico.
On May 22 local time, Quanta Computer announced a new investment plan in northern Mexico, which is expected to create 2,500 jobs and cost $1 billion. In addition to being a major contract factory for Apple Computers, Quanta is also a supplier to Tesla, which earlier announced it would invest $5 billion in a new factory in Mexico. Quanta did not disclose the specific purpose of the new investment. Foxconn, another Taiwanese OEM, also plans to build an electric vehicle production base in Mexico.
Despite the industry downturn, Vietnam plans to raise taxes on real estate to crack down on speculation.
Vietnam plans to introduce legislation to tax second-home owners and raise city property taxes to curb property speculation. Vietnam’s real estate market has been sluggish since the middle of last year due to a slowing economy and superimposed high mortgage interest rates of over 10%. In the first quarter of this year, the sales of apartments in Ho Chi Minh City fell by 27% year-on-year, and the value of investment properties was halved year-on-year. According to statistics, in the second three quarters of this year, about 10.7 billion US dollars of corporate bonds in Vietnam will mature, of which more than 3.8 billion US dollars of bonds in the real estate industry are at risk of default.
This article is transferred from: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1667
This site is only for collection, and the copyright belongs to the original author.