Dalian Wanda Group, headed by China’s richest man, on Thursday said it has bought the organiser of Ironman Triathlon races for $650 million, in a diversification push that the property developer said may involve another sports purchase by year-end.
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Wanda said that the deal helps complete the company’s sports rights business unit, and that it becomes the largest sports rights company in the world, following an earlier deal to buy Infront and a minority stake in soccer team Atletico Madrid.
“As China enters the ranks of middle income countries, people are paying increasing attention to physical fitness and spiritual fulfilment, and triathlon’s unique charm and challenge is set to attract a large number of people”, the company said. Wanda plans to hold as many as three races in China next year and increase Chinese participants to 200,000 over the next decade from 100.
But the WTC is rivalled in administering triathlons by the worldwide Triathlon Union (ITU), which has in the past accused it of lower standards and replacing “the focus of building sport participation and exposure with a revenue generating model to turn profits”.
The deal to buy World Triathlon, which operates 250 events a year, “will bring a top worldwide competition to China for the first time”, it said.
A month later, Wanda agreed to acquire sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media for €1.05 billion. Wang, whose current net worth is $31.2 billion, lost .6 billion in the market tumble, which translates to a 10 percent loss.
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Wang recently overtook Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing as Asia’s richest man, according to a ranking released last week by the Hurun Report.
