SHANGHAI (Reuters) – A Chinese court has lifted restrictions on the only son of Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin, the chairman of private conglomerate Dalian Wanda, who hit headlines last month after reports that he owed at least $20 million to creditors.
Wang Sicong, a well-known name in China thanks to his high-profile social media displays of a luxurious life, was barred by courts in November from taking trains and planes due to debts incurred by his private equity firm Prometheus Capital which was founded with 500 million yuan ($71.5 million) his father gave him.
A Beijing court said this week that Wang’s firm had reached settlement with a number of companies that had sued him, leading it to lift those restrictions, which are typically enforced in China on debtors and can extend to bans on hotel stays.
Prometheus Capital also said on Thursday on its website that it would shoulder a 2 billion yuan investment loss incurred by one of Wang’s companies, Shanghai Panda Entertainment, which declared bankruptcy in March, as part of his debt settlement.
Wang did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters sent to his Weibo account.
The topic “Wang Sicong bears Panda Entertainment’s 2 billion (yuan) loss” had racked over 410 million views on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform by Friday.
News of his debt troubles has sparked much speculation in China on how he had racked up so much debt.
His father’s fortunes have also suffered a downturn, according to Forbes, which ranked him fourteenth on its China rich list this year, down from fourth last year. Forbes estimated that the real estate billionaire’s wealth had shrunk by 68.2 billion yuan during the 12-month period.
Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom and Brenda Goh
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