Sunac aims to become top tourism player

Sunac China Holdings Ltd, the fourth-largest developer in China in terms of sales, said it will remain focused on the real estate sector while expanding cultural tourism services.

In the next three to five years, it aims to lead the cultural tourism industry, and two flagship projects of Sunac in Guangzhou and Wuxi are on the docket for June, according to a statement released on Monday.

Covering 2.2 million square meters, Guangzhou Sunac Wanda Cultural Tourism City is comprised of eight major sectors, such as Sunac Paradise, Sunac Mall, Snow World and Water World, offering 57 world-class shows and eight innovative entertainment projects.

Of these, Snow World in Guangzhou will boast the largest indoor skiing resort in South China.

The Wuxi project will include the Xiake Mountain Roller Coaster, which will be the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster with speeds of 118 kilometers per hour.

With slowdowns in land and home prices projected to continue, along with tightening of property regulations, Sunac plans to open new sectors in culture and tourism — deemed "the next gold mine" by real estate enterprises.

The main component of Sunac's cultural and tourism assets was derived in its acquisition of Wanda Group.

In 2017, Sunac paid 43.8 billion yuan ($6.52 billion) to purchase 13 entertainment-based projects, including theme parks, residential developments and other tourism assets from Wanda, at a time when Wanda was under pressure to reduce debt.

Last year, Sunac set up a culture and tourism operating group in Hainan separate from the real estate group, and invested more in its tourism company in Shanghai. It also spent 6.28 billion yuan to acquire all design, construction and management companies under the Wanda Culture Travel Innovation Group.

This new agreement gave Sunac full control of the group and management rights.

Since then, Sunac has become the largest holder of Chinese culture and tourism properties, controlling 12 cultural and tourism cities, four resorts and nine towns, all of which cover 39 parks and 24 commercial sectors with 70 hotels.

Wang Mengde, executive director and CEO of Sunac, said, "Through long-term investment and operation, the culture and tourism group of Sunac will become a new growth point for our future development, and its importance will gradually emerge after five to 10 years."

Zhang Hanzhi contributed to this story.