Dalian Wanda, the Chinese property group, has announced plans for a clutch of new acquisitions and the formation of a financial holding company.

Dalian Wanda, the Chinese property group, has announced plans for a clutch of new acquisitions and the formation of a financial holding company, as it extends efforts to branch out from real estate.

The privately held company, which in December listed its commercial property arm in Hong Kong, said on Monday it would make six more acquisitions in non-property sectors this year — half of them domestic and the other half foreign — as part of a major reorganisation of its businesses this year.

According to the plans, posted on its website at the weekend, the financial holding company is to be one of four “pillars” or business units, and reflects optimism about the financial sector in spite of the stock market gloom of the past four weeks.

“Wanda will complete acquisitions of banks, security and insurance companies, and form the Wanda financial group with the existing Wanda Investment Company,” the company said.

Michael Cole, at Mingtiandi, an online real estate information service, said: “It looks like they’re betting that the stock market crisis will be a blip, and that the government will get this under control.”

The Wanda finance arm will focus on “internet plus” finance, according to Wang Jianlin, Wanda’s chairman, using a government-favoured buzzword aimed at encouraging integration of offline business with online ecommerce.

In June, the company took its first steps in this direction when it raised $800m through crowdfunding for a series of shopping plazas, by offering a guaranteed 12 per cent return generated by rentals of completed developments.

Wanda, China’s largest commercial-property developer, plans to reorganise four key business areas — finance, entertainment, commercial property and ecommerce — into the four key pillars, according to its statement.

Analysts said the move was probably aimed at more initial public offerings.

“This looks like a manoeuvre to create more IPOs,” said Mr Cole. “My guess is that more divisions means more possible stock listings.”

Privately held Wanda, owned by Mr Wang and his family, raised $3.7bn from the Hong Kong listing of its commercial real estate arm last year.

Earlier this month the company announced plans to raise up to Rmb12bn ($1.9bn) through another share offering in China , aimed at funding five projects under way on the mainland, where its mixed-use Wanda Plaza developments are familiar sights in cities.

The company has been on a buying spree, snapping up acquisitions including the US AMC cinema chain, and this year a 20 per cent stake in Atletico Madrid football club as well as the sports-rights agency run by the nephew of outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter. It also has expressed interest in buying Hollywood film producer Lions Gate Entertainment.

According to its latest plan, Wanda is looking to accelerate its transition into a services company. It aims for revenue and profits from services to exceed 65 per cent of the total by 2018, it said, bringing forward the target date from an originally declared goal of 2020.

Wanda is China’s largest builder of retail shopping centres, with more than 100 Wanda Plaza malls across the country and more opening at the rate of one every two to three weeks. It calls its network of malls “the largest offline consumption platform in China”, with 1.5bn visitors expected this year.

However, Wanda faces an uncertain future given predictions that online shopping, led by Chinese ecommerce juggernaut Alibaba, will gradually replace physical storefronts.