WANDA Sports Group Co., a unit under billionaire Wang Jianlin’s conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group Co., has filed to go public in the United States with a goal of raising funds to pay down debt.

The Beijing-based company, which has had partnerships with FIFA and the Chinese Basketball Association, owns sports properties and generates revenue from events, sponsorship and media pacts. In its filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it listed the size of its IPO as US$500 million, likely a placeholder amount that’s subject to change.

Wanda Sports had 2018 revenue of US$1.29 billion, up about 15 percent from a year ago, the company said in the filing. Its profit for the year was US$62 million, a 31 percent drop from the previous year.

Dalian Wanda will continue to retain a majority of total voting power after the offering because of its dual-class share structure, according to the filing.

Wanda Sports is required under a covenant to use some of the IPO proceeds to repay an 11.5 percent loan related to the group’s restructuring, with the rest to fund investments and for general corporate use, it said in the filing. In 2015, Wanda acquired sports marketing firm Infront and World Endurance Holdings Inc. (SD-Agencies)