ICBC provides a loan to Dalian Wanda for its acquisition of the Edificio España building

Project narrative

In 2014, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) issued a mergers & acquisition (M&A) loan to Dalian Wanda Group Co., Ltd. — a Chinese private sector conglomerate with hefty investment in the culture and entertainment sectors whose majority shareholder is Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin —to support its €265 million EUR acquisition of Edificio España. The project sought to acquire Edificio España, a skyscraper in Madrid, from seller Santander. Including value-added tax and other transaction costs, the acquisition project had a total cost of over €300 million EUR. Wanda financed the plan via capital contributions from Wanda Real Estate and its subsidiaries and the loan from ICBC. The acquisition was completed in June 2014. Wanda intended to renovate the 25-story building, which had been vacant since 2007, into a luxury hotel and shopping center. However, Wanda ran into difficulties with renovations, as Wanda sought to totally demolish the structure and rebuilt it with a similar façade. Edificio España, however, enjoyed legally protections on its architectures, and authorities refused to allow Wanda to proceed as originally planned. Wanda chief shareholder Wang Jianlin complained that Wanda was "being treated like a dog" by the Madrid authorities. In February 2016, Dalian Wanda announced its intention to sell the Edificio España. In December 2016, Wanda Hotel Development Company sold Edificio España to Baraka Global Invest, for €272 million EUR ($283 million USD), a $75 million USD-equivalent loss — though a profit in euro terms because of its depreciation.