China's richest man lays out his Plans for Europe, UK

He also acquired Sunseeker, a UK-based luxury yachtmaker, and his company now employs 1,200 people across the UK.

"Soon we will be employing 3,000 people here," Wang said.

He said he was currently negotiating a large retail project.

Dalian Wanda is China's largest property developer, with much of its early investment made in shopping malls and retail parks, and now generates about 40 billion dollars in revenue globally each year.

He characterized the US and the UK as being important. "The US is the biggest market, but the UK is a freer market. Here you have no approvals procedure, but the US has many approval procedures, and they can take back your license at any time over 50 years," he said.

"The UK has a good legal framework," Wang added.

Dalian Wanda has now become a multi-industry enterprise, with three main divisions – property, finance and culture.

Last year Dalian Wanda became the biggest cinema chain operator in the world, when it acquired AMC Entertainment, a US-based movie theatre chain, as well as buying Swiss-based Infront Sports and Media, a sports marketing company, for $1.2 billion.

It also announced in January it would be paying $3.5 billion to acquire Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment.

On the finance side, Wang said Wanda Finance operated a fund for startups, and his advice to his audience was not to seek too much funding, "because then you wouldn't be a startup."

Asked if he had any worries about the slowing down of China's economy, he said the country was going through the challenge of an economic transformation.

"We have to face the challenges. In Chinese we say risks equal opportunities. There are a lot of risks, but there are also a lot of opportunities. There are difficulties for traditional industries, but sectors such as tourism, sport and entertainment offer opportunities," Wang said.

Asked about future plans, he said "we are exploring long-term investment in the UK, but in a couple of days we are going to announce a major project in another EU country," although he wouldn't give any specific details.

He also gave some insight into his company's way of operating. English, he said, was vital, and the group planned to hire bilingual staff as part of their globalization plan.

He hinted that he would be making a contribution to Oxford University, but wouldn't say any more.

"I am going to support more startups," he added.

Wang also expanded further on his rule for doing business. It was an invariable rule that Dalian Wanda took a modular approach.

Executives had to complete the first module successfully, earning a green light before moving on in sequence to the next module. If at any time something wasn't right, then an amber light would happen, followed by a red one if the problem wasn't solved.

His objective was to make Dalian Wanda a world-class leader. "We're not actually there yet, maybe by 2020, or 2019."

By then he plans to have assets of 200 billion dollars, a market capitalization of $200 billion, revenues of $100 billion and net profits of $10 billion.

He joked that he sometimes thought of what he called semi-retirement, but "it's too early. There's always another target. This time it's to become a world-class organization."

Wang was recently estimated to be worth $25 billion by the Hurun report, making him the 26th richest man in the world.

The lecture had its lighter moments – one Chinese girl, invited to ask a question, said Wang had already answered all the things she wanted to know, so did Dalian Wanda have a website where she could apply for a multi-lingual job? Her reward was a signed coped of Wang's book, "The Wanda Way," in English, and an invitation to apply for a job.

Another student was so enthusiastic he jumped onto the stage and gave Wang a hug, much to the consternation of a rather large bodyguard. But it all ended in smiles – and another signed copy of the English version of his book.

To contact the reporter: chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com

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