Wanda's sports arm hopes to raise $500m via New York float

Chinese private conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co Ltd plans to list its sports arm in the Nasdaq exchange in New York as the company keeps making inroads into the international market and strengthen the operation of its sports business.

The Beijing-based Wanda Sports Group holds shares in Infront Sports & Media and the Ironman long-distance triathlon brand, among other top global assets. It filed an application on Friday and aims to raise $500 million through its IPO on the Nasdaq. It will use some of the proceeds to repay loans related to group restructuring, according to its prospectus.

As one of the largest sport events and marketing platforms, Wanda Sports posted sales revenue of 1.12 billion euros ($1.23 billion) in 2018, and a profit of 54 million euros. For the three months ended March 31, 2019, the company reported revenue of 245.6 million euros and a loss of 8.6 million euros, the company said in its filing.

Since 2015, the giant property developer has been diversifying its portfolio in sports, in addition to film and hotel businesses, by completing a group of high-profile acquisitions of world-class sports assets. It is now a top event organizer in triathlon, mountain biking and running events, the filing said.

"The sports industry is a sunrise industry in China, and despite some challenges, the investment in the sector has been growing. Now, it is a very good timing to strengthen the layout in the sports sector, fueled by the growing demand of Chinese consumers increasingly paying attention to exercising and keeping healthy," said An Fuxiu, founder of Sportbank, a Beijing-based sports industry consultancy.

"Wanda Sports has helped many global events to launch in China, such as the Ironman race. The group could become more internationalized by potentially listing its sports assets. Sports is a good path that will help Chinese enterprises and brands to become major players in the global market," she said. Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, said in 2016 the sports industry will be a new growth point in the next decade in the country. Wanda Sports aims to go public ultimately and become the first sports company with annual sales revenues of over $10 billion globally.

In 2015, Wanda completed a $650 million merger with World Triathlon Corp. Later, it bought Swiss sports marketing group Infront Sports& Media for 1.05 billion euros.

The global sports media and events market is projected to grow to 224 billion euros in 2022 from 179 billion euros in 2018, representing a compound annual growth rate of about 5.9 percent, the prospectus said.