Time flies and another year has passed. Since its founding 27 years ago, this is the first time that Wanda is holding its annual meeting outside the city it is headquartered in. This was done to allow more of our people to experience the fruits borne from the development of Wanda's cultural industry. On behalf of the Wanda Group's 113,000 employees, I would firstly like to warmly welcome the leaders and representatives who are gracing our annual meeting with their presence.
1. 2014 Major Achievements
With the persisting slowdown of the Chinese economy, 2014 has been a tough year. Moreover, the international environment has a pessimistic one. The global economy has four primary drivers; Europe in a quagmire, Japan is struggling, the American economy managed only a weak recovery, China has also been slowing down. Under this challenging backdrop, Wanda has still managed to achieve excellent results through the combined efforts of its people.
1. Fully reaching annual targets
In 2014, Wanda Group's assets grew to RMB 534.1 billion, representing a YoY growth of 34.5%; revenue reached RMB 242.48 billion, representing a YoY growth of 30% and hitting 101% of our annual plan target; the group's net profit also expanded significantly. This is the 9th consecutive year that Wanda has achieved a YoY growth of 30% or higher.
Wanda Commercial Properties' contract revenue climbed to RMB 182.73 billion, up 25.7% YoY; this included a real estate contract revenue of RMB 160.15 billion, representing a YoY growth of 26.8% and hitting 101% of our annual plan target. Additional properties held reached 4.527 million square meters and cumulative properties held expanded to 21.566 million square meters, representing a YoY growth of 26.5%. These figures merely cover the properties held by Wanda Commercial Properties and have not included those held by the group itself. Annual construction area increased to 65.862 million square meters, representing an amazing YoY growth of 27.2%; new construction area climbed to 27.625 million square meters, representing a YoY growth of 11%; new projects made up more than 40% of the construction area, and they will lay the foundations for growth in 2015 and 2016. Area completed grew to 16.137 million square meters, representing a growth of 19%. Although investment growth has slowed nationwide, Wanda's will continue to maintain a high level of investment growth.
Wanda Commercial Management opened 24 new Wanda Plazas, bringing the total number of Wanda Plazas to 109. Rental income from commercial properties hit RMB 11.68 billion, of which RMB 11.08 billion was generated by rent from Wanda Plaza, representing a YoY growth of 30.5%. In recent years, Wanda experienced a significant growth in revenue from various non-property sources, all of which grew at far higher rates than its revenue from property sales. This is a good sign. Our Wanda Plazas reported a rent collection rate of 100% for the second consecutive year. We held the 8th Wanda Business Conference, an innovative event that boasted a 100% YoY growth in participant numbers and saw more than 1,000 merchants signing cooperation agreements. Many are now studying Wanda's strengths, and in fact, Wanda's core strengths are its abundance of business resources and superb operational capabilities. We pulled off the 100th Wanda Plaza Celebration...
Time flies and another year has passed. Since its founding 27 years ago, this is the first time that Wanda is holding its annual meeting outside the city it is headquartered in. This was done to allow more of our people to experience the fruits borne from the development of Wanda's cultural industry. On behalf of the Wanda Group's 113,000 employees, I would firstly like to warmly welcome the leaders and representatives who are gracing our annual meeting with their presence.
1. 2014 Major Achievements
With the persisting slowdown of the Chinese economy, 2014 has been a tough year. Moreover, the international environment has a pessimistic one. The global economy has four primary drivers; Europe in a quagmire, Japan is struggling, the American economy managed only a weak recovery, China has also been slowing down. Under this challenging backdrop, Wanda has still managed to achieve excellent results through the combined efforts of its people.
1. Fully reaching annual targets
In 2014, Wanda Group's assets grew to RMB 534.1 billion, representing a YoY growth of 34.5%; revenue reached RMB 242.48 billion, representing a YoY growth of 30% and hitting 101% of our annual plan target; the group's net profit also expanded significantly. This is the 9th consecutive year that Wanda has achieved a YoY growth of 30% or higher.
Wanda Commercial Properties' contract revenue climbed to RMB 182.73 billion, up 25.7% YoY; this included a real estate contract revenue of RMB 160.15 billion, representing a YoY growth of 26.8% and hitting 101% of our annual plan target. Additional properties held reached 4.527 million square meters and cumulative properties held expanded to 21.566 million square meters, representing a YoY growth of 26.5%. These figures merely cover the properties held by Wanda Commercial Properties and have not included those held by the group itself. Annual construction area increased to 65.862 million square meters, representing an amazing YoY growth of 27.2%; new construction area climbed to 27.625 million square meters, representing a YoY growth of 11%; new projects made up more than 40% of the construction area, and they will lay the foundations for growth in 2015 and 2016. Area completed grew to 16.137 million square meters, representing a growth of 19%. Although investment growth has slowed nationwide, Wanda's will continue to maintain a high level of investment growth.
Wanda Commercial Management opened 24 new Wanda Plazas, bringing the total number of Wanda Plazas to 109. Rental income from commercial properties hit RMB 11.68 billion, of which RMB 11.08 billion was generated by rent from Wanda Plaza, representing a YoY growth of 30.5%. In recent years, Wanda experienced a significant growth in revenue from various non-property sources, all of which grew at far higher rates than its revenue from property sales. This is a good sign. Our Wanda Plazas reported a rent collection rate of 100% for the second consecutive year. We held the 8th Wanda Business Conference, an innovative event that boasted a 100% YoY growth in participant numbers and saw more than 1,000 merchants signing cooperation agreements. Many are now studying Wanda's strengths, and in fact, Wanda's core strengths are its abundance of business resources and superb operational capabilities. We pulled off the 100th Wanda Plaza Celebration successfully, attracting more than 26 million vistors during the three-day event. In 2014, our Wanda Plazas received a total of 1.63 billion vistors (excluding hotel and tourist resorts), representing a YoY growth of 33%. Last year, the number of stores in Wanda Plazas grew by 22% YoY, yet our vistor flow expanded by 33%, proving that Wanda Plaza's established stores are still enjoying a growing flow of vistors from year to year. This is testament to the fact that physical stores can still thrive as long as they continue to innovate and create a good consumer experience. Consumers have a diverse range of needs, and while they do shop online, many will also visit shopping malls to enjoy the consumer experience.
2014 saw the completed transformation of 20 Wanda Plaza intelligent cloud systems which were already in operation, my requirement is for the transformation of all systems to be completed by 2016. The intelligent cloud system does not simply integrate 16 sub-systems, it is also optimized for the use of a mobile dashboard application. With your phone, you can monitor operational and consumption status of every Wanda Plaza wherever you are. During Wanda Commercial Properties' roadshow in the US prior to its listing, many Americans were curious about how we could manage more than 100 Wanda Plazas spread across the country. In reponse, we would whip out our phones, access the intelligent cloud system and promptly show them information on each and every plaza, which included operating income, foot traffic and security monitoring. The Americans were quite surprised at how advanced the technology was.
Wanda Hotel Investment & Development opened 18 new five-star hotels with 5546 additional rooms, bringing its total number of completed hotels to 71, with 22,300 guest rooms.
Wanda Hotels & Resorts reported revenues of RMB 4.59 billion, representing a YoY growth of 26.4%.
Wanda Commercial Properties' other income amounted to RMB 6.31 billion, but I'm going to leave out the details.
Wanda Culture Industry Group recorded RMB 34.14 billion in revenue for 2014, hitting 108.9% of its annual plan target and achieving a YoY growth of 32.3%. The group performed its missions well, grew rapidly and pulled further ahead of its domestic competitors. The task of creating a world-class cultural enterprise in Chinese now rests on the group.
AMC's revenue reached RMB 16.39 billion, equivalent to 96% of its annual plan target. Despite this, it managed to exceed its annual profit target.
Wanda Cinema Line opened 40 new cinemas with 369 new screens, bringing its total number of screens to 1,616. This is a quiet period for the company since it has yet to be formally listed. We will not publish specific data but the company has significantly outperformed all of its targets. Particular praise goes to Wanda Cinema Line's competence with respect to "internet thinking", for its online revenue grew 201% YoY, and more than 70% of that came from members' consumption. I place a lot of emphasis on these two indicators and hope that the company will attract more revenue from online sources and thereby reduce costs; concurrently, I want it to raise members' consumption as a percentage of revenue to 80% or higher, this will significantly reduce random-type consumption and allow for operations of a safer and more stable nature.
Super Star opened 24 new locations, bringing the total number of locations to 90, and recorded RMB 767 million, which represented
