Sunseeker Yachts Bidder, Mr. Jianlin, is China’s Wealthiest Person

Wang Jianlin, owner of the Dalian Wanda Group that is currently negotiating a £320 million British Pounds deal to buy Sunseeker Yachts, has been identified as China’s wealthiest person in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

According to Bloomberg, his placing as the richest person is based on regulatory filings that show his non-real estate businesses are more valuable than previously calculated. The Index says he has a net worth of $14.2 billion U.S. dollars.

The potential purchase of a near 91.8% of Sunseeker Yachts, a deal which is understood to still have a few weeks of negotiation left before completion, was part of a large investment in the United Kingdom by Wanda that also includes a new hotel in London. The deal reflects Wanda’s increased strategy of international purchases. The group is China’s biggest commercial land developer and last year paid US$2.6m for AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, which operates the world’s largest movie theatre chain.

Under the terms of the Sunseeker deal, the company’s manufacturing plants in Poole and Portland will stay and there will be no changes to staff. The present management will continue and account for the remaining eight per cent-plus stake.

It emerged at the press conference in Beijing announcing the Sunseeker deal that Wanda is also interested in developing three marinas in and around Dalian. Despite SB asking for more information on these plans, nothing has been forthcoming from Wanda as yet.