China’s Richest Man to Build $8 Billion Film Park

Property developer Wang Jianlin, 58, founder of Dalian Wanda Group, was surrounded by Hollywood stars John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones on Sunday as he launched his most ambitious project yet in the picturesque coastal city of Qingdao.

When completed in 2017, the Oriental Movie Metropolis will boast 20 sound stages, including the world's first underwater studio, a massive convention and exhibition complex, a sprawling shopping mall with an indoor amusement park and seven resort hotels.

The project also will include a yacht club with 300 berths.

"The Oriental Movie Metropolis is a major step in China's strategy to become a global cultural powerhouse," Wang said.

It was not only crucial to the development of Wanda's entertainment business, he added, but also an important step for building China's cultural brand.

For Wang, who was named by Forbes as China's richest man with personal wealth of $14 billion, the Qingdao project also represents the latest move by Wanda Group to parlay its real estate and shopping mall development into a leisure and entertainment empire.

Wanda Group, which is privately held, has invested in 72 Wanda Plazas across China, along with 40 five-star hotels. The company also owns 6,000 movie screens, 62 department stores and 68 karaoke centers.

More recently, the company has turned to offshore markets to expand its real estate and leisure investment. Last year, Wanda closed its $2.6 billion buy-out of U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment. Wang this year also announced a 1 billion pound ($1.57 billion) British investment that included the purchase of Sunseeker, Britain's largest luxury yacht maker by sales.

The Wanda chairman told Reuters earlier this month that he could afford to spend as much as $5 billion every year to buy foreign firms or assets.

In an interview on the sidelines of Sunday's ceremony, Wang said that he expected Wanda Group revenue to increase to $30 billion this year, and to continue to increase by $10 billion every year.

Wanda Group says it has total assets of 300 billion yuan ($49.01 billion) and annual revenue for 2012 of 141.7 billion yuan ($23.15 billion).

"We will have more than $50 billion in revenue two years from now," he said. "In 2020, we will have at least $100 billion, even by conservative estimates."

Offshore hotel investment is a major focus of the company's strategy. "In the next eight to ten years, we will build high-end hotels in major cities around the world," he said.

To reach the site of Oriental Movie Metropolis, which is planned as a 376-hectare, eight-phase development, it's necessary to drive about one hour from downtown Qingdao past rows of upscale apartment complexes that appear partially occupied.

Wang, who started his own film production company in recent months that has met with mixed success, explained that movies were a "sunrise industry" in China. He expects Wanda to be among the world's leading 20 entertainment companies by 2016.

He declined to discuss financing for the new project, although he has not ruled out the use of partners or of debt.

($1 = 6.12 yuan)

(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee in Qingdao and Matthew Miller in Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Ireland Jails Sean Quinn, Once Its Richest Man

DUBLIN (Reuters) — Ireland jailed the former billionaire Sean Quinn on Friday for failing to disclose assets he was hiding abroad, completing the fall from grace of the richest man in Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” boom.

Mr. Quinn, whose 4 billion euro ($5.2 billion) business empire collapsed after a disastrous investment in the now failed Anglo Irish Bank, is the first major player jailed in connection with the country’s economic collapse, having come to personify its boom and bust.

He was found guilty of contempt of court in June for violating an order not to block state-owned Anglo, since renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, from seizing foreign property assets worth an estimated 500 million euros.

He was initially spared prison and ordered to disclose information regarding assets spread as far afield as Russia, Ukraine and Belize.

But Justice Elizabeth Dunne told a Dublin high court on Friday that Mr. Quinn had only himself to blame over contempt she described as “nothing short of outrageous.”

“I cannot ignore the extent and degree of contempt of court on his part; the appropriate term by reasons of noncompliance with the orders is nine weeks,” said Judge Dunne, who deemed Mr. Quinn “evasive and uncooperative” when giving evidence.

Mr. Quinn, a father of five who used to fly around Europe on his Falcon jet sealing property deals, sat in court with a tissue held to his face. His eyes bloodshot, he stared straight ahead as the sentence was handed down.

The judge said she would consider placing a stay on the jail term until a Supreme Court appeal against the contempt is heard, but Mr. Quinn opted to start his term immediately, meaning he will spend Christmas behind bars.

He had tears in his eyes as he said goodbye to supporters and family members before being led out of the court by police. He told reporters he had made mistakes but that the “whole thing is a charade.”

Mr. Quinn’s son Sean and nephew Peter, who were also found guilty of contempt, were handed three-month jail terms in July. Peter Quinn fled the jurisdiction to Northern Ireland while his cousin served a full sentence.

Ireland’s costly banking rescue helped push the country into seeking an international bailout two years ago this month. It is the subject of intense negotiations in Europe to ease the burden as Dublin tries to exit its program next year. In the country’s boom years, Mr. Quinn turned a rural quarrying operation on his family farm into a global business empire spanning wind farms, cement plants and hotels, but he became the subject of the largest Irish bankruptcy order ever just four years after becoming its richest man.

He is still regarded by some as a hero thanks to his role as a big employer in his home county of Cavan. Thousands of locals, including sports figures and politicians, have held two rallies since August to support him in the court proceedings.

Mr. Quinn’s use of loans to make the ill-fated investments in the former Anglo resulted in the failed lender pursuing him for debts of almost 3 billion euros in a global treasure hunt from courtrooms in Dublin to the British Virgin Islands.