(Yicai Global) May 25 -- Wangfujing Group’s shares surged by the daily limit after the Chinese department store operator said it made the winning CNY160 million (USD24 million) bid to buy an outlet shopping center in China's southern holiday destination of Hainan province.

Wangfujing's stock price [SHA: 600859] jumped 10 percent to close at CNY23.13 (USD3.50), though the shares are still down by almost 30 percent over the past 12 months.

The seller of apparel, cosmetics, and food needs to additionally repay CNY776.6 million of debt accrued by Hainan Outlets Tourism Development to its former owner Juyuan Xincheng Tianjin Investment Management, the Beijing-based buyer said in a statement yesterday. Juyuan is a unit of property developer Capital Land.

Wangfujing, which is controlled by state-owned Beijing Tourism Group, delayed making an announcement in April that it had won the bidding, made through the China Beijing Equity Exchange, in order to comply with bourse rules.

Hainan Outlets is located in Wanning, a city in the southeast of the island province. The mall had a net loss of CNY30.1 million (USD4.5 million) last year on CNY67 million of revenue, the buyer said said.

Wangfujing will give full play to its operating advantages and is committed to building Hainan Outlets into the biggest outlet shopping center in the province, the firm said. Wanning's rapid economic development is expected to bring the project considerable footfall. The mall already has some international first and second-tier brands, it added. 

Besides free trade zone plans, China aims to transform Hainan into an international tourism and consumption hub, Wangfujing said. Hainan's FTZ is expected to cover the whole island by 2025, based on a government blueprint. Wangfujing will speed up its various business developments in Hainan to seize opportunities, it added. 

In 2020, Wangfujing became the eighth Chinese company permitted to run a duty-free business in the country.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi