Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management has appointed a new female executive

A deep transformation regarding the direction of commercial real estate has reached a critical point.

Recently, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management completed a low-profile personnel change. Veteran Xu Fen, who has served Wanda for 20 years, officially took over the CEO position from PAG partner Huang Dewei.

A message from Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management's official WeChat account on January 19 confirmed this change. Xu Fen, in her capacity as CEO of Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management, delivered the 2025 annual work report of the group.

Insiders familiar with Wanda indicated that this reflects the investors, including PAG, granting more power to Wanda.

There were once doubts in the market about whether this commercial giant could maintain its operational capabilities after PAG's investment of 60 billion and Wang Jianlin's shareholding being diluted to 12.3%. This personnel appointment clearly provides a different answer.

Xu Fen, who started as the financial manager at Nanning Wanda, has risen to the position of president of the North District. In Wanda's system, which emphasizes efficiency and results, executives with a financial background possess a natural "muscle memory," being extremely sensitive to every percentage of rent collection rates and every item of energy expenditure.

This sensitivity is precisely what PAG wants to see after investing 60 billion in real money. In the past, Wanda's logic was scale-driven; now, the rule has shifted to return-driven. Xu Fen's rise has cleared the last barrier of communication between capital and veterans.

Of course, in this race that determines the survival of existing stock, PAG does not intend to rely solely on Wanda's old guard.

Partnering with Xu Fen is COO Chen Qi, who has held key positions in CapitaLand, Longfor, Xuhui, and Excellence. If Xu Fen represents Wanda's original strong execution power, then Chen Qi brings market-oriented refined operations and commercial ecology.

With a massive base of over 530 plazas, every 1% increase in sales per square meter brings astonishing profit returns. PAG needs Xu Fen to safeguard Wanda's roots while requiring Chen Qi to plant the seeds in the market.

This "combination punch" is timely. Over the past two years, the commercial real estate sector has experienced roller-coaster-like fluctuations. The suffocating feeling of being choked by debt scale and asset devaluation has made all practitioners understand one truth: the era of telling stories based on scale is over. In the competition for commercial management after 2026, only extreme cost control and operational depth can serve as the stabilizer for performance.

PAG and other consortiums have chosen this moment to relinquish execution power, timing it perfectly.

In the past two years, Wanda has maneuvered through the debt vortex. Although the 60 billion investment has provided a sigh of relief for the industry chain, the consumption fluctuations in the fourth quarter of 2025 have once again awakened capital's muscle memory regarding asset package safety. That familiar pain instantly reminded everyone: without extreme operational efficiency, even the largest asset package can become a heavy burden.

For PAG, Huang Dewei's departure from the CEO position signifies that the first phase of dismantling and restructuring has ended. Now, what they need are professional operators who can dig out every penny of rent from the front line.

This is a hunt concerning the survival rights for the next decade. Everyone is betting that 2026 will be the "year of specialization" in the commercial management industry As the halo of individual heroism gradually fades, it is replaced by precise management. After 2026, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management will no longer be a one-dimensional resource expansion but will move towards an ecological balance where ownership and management rights are completely separated. This will be a more resilient governance system. In this system, decisions will no longer easily go out of control due to individual misjudgments, and operations will no longer easily come to a halt due to fluctuations in the capital chain.

Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management is attempting to use professional certainty to hedge against the uncertain tomorrow in the winter of the stock era. This may be the most realistic and also the most brutal aspect of business evolution