Neither Wanda nor Mr. Xiao has ever publicly discussed whether they have a relationship. But a review of documents indicates that business associates of Mr. Xiao were involved both in the process leading up to Wanda’s 2014 initial public offering in Hong Kong and its privatization less than two years later, according to numerous corporate filings in China and Hong Kong.

It is not clear whether Wanda actively sought his help or whether Mr. Xiao’s connections in the Chinese business world are so extensive that they could be difficult to avoid. Mr. Xiao, 45, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Wanda would not comment when asked about ties between Mr. Xiao and the company.

Wanda is one of a number of companies in China that have come to be known as gray rhinos: politically connected private companies that have invested billions of dollars abroad and borrowed heavily from Chinese banks. Wanda, with its substantial debts and extensive financial ties to the families of China’s Communist Party elite, is the prototypical gray rhino.



Wanda involvement with companies connected with Mr. Xiao goes back more than eight years.

A business partner of Mr. Xiao, Yang Hongwei, held a senior position at an investment firm that helped oversee a Wanda private share sale in 2009. That deal brought in politically powerful investors, including the older sister of Mr. Xi, Qi Qiaoqiao, and her husband, Deng Jiagui, as shareholders in Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, Chinese corporate records show. That Wanda unit, the company’s flagship, owns shopping malls across China.

Mr. Yang at the time ran the China operations of the investment banking arm of China Construction Bank, a huge state-run lender, and that investment bank was itself once one of Wanda’s biggest shareholders.

Mr. Yang also had extensive ties with Mr. Xiao. The two founded an internet company in 2000, then Mr. Yang went on to run another technology company that counted one of the companies in Mr. Xiao’s fleet as a top investor.

Mr. Yang, Mr. Xiao and Mr. Xi’s family had other business connections, corporate records show. While Mr. Yang was at China Construction Bank’s investment bank, it formed a joint venture with Ms. Qi and Mr. Deng to make China investments. In 2013, after a Bloomberg News report showed the wealth accumulated by Mr. Xi’s family, the company co-founded by Mr. Xiao and Mr. Yang bought the joint venture stake owned by Mr. Xi’s relatives.