FOSHAN, China, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 30, Country Garden Holdings Company Limited (“Country Garden”) (02007.HK) released its financial results for 2021. The company maintained its industry leading position in sales and achieved stable growth in revenue and top performance in days sales outstanding (DSO), demonstrating robust operational resilience.

CEO of Country Garden Holdings, Mo Bin (middle), Executive Vice President, Cheng Guangyu (right), Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Wu Bijun (left)

For the year ended December 31, 2021, Country Garden achieved contracted sales attributable to shareholders of approximately 558 billion yuan (approx. US$87.7 billion) with contracted sales GFA attributable to shareholders of 66.41 million square meters. Statistics show that from 2015 to 2021, the company’s compound growth rate of contracted sales reached 29%.

In the sales rankings released by China Index Academy, CRIC and other third-party organizations, Country Garden is the only real estate developer with full caliber sales surpassing 700 billion yuan (approx. US$110 billion), and equity sales exceeding 500 billion yuan (approx. US$78.6 billion), maintaining its top position in the industry.

In terms of core profit indicators, the Group booked revenue of 523.06 billion yuan (approx. US$82.2 billion), gross profit of 92.78 billion yuan (approx. US$14.6 billion) and net profit of 40.98 billion yuan (approx. US$6.4 billion) for the full year. Core net profit attributable to shareholders stood at 26.93 billion yuan (approx. 4.2 billion).

Adequate cash flow is a key factor in managing and minimizing risk as the industry witnesses a tightening of capital and many developers face a cash squeeze as their bonds reach maturity. During the reporting period, Country Garden’s cash collected from attributable contracted sales amounted to 502.2 billion yuan (approx. US$79 million), with a cash collection ratio of 90%. Of note is that Country Garden has maintained this ratio at a level of 90% or higher for six consecutive years.

In addition to further improvement in the financial position, Country Garden’s debt level has declined steadily year by year, with financing costs falling in tandem. As of December 31, 2021, the Group had sufficient available cash of 181.3 billion yuan (approx. US$28.5 billion); total interest-bearing debt decreased by 2.6% to 317.92 billion yuan (approx. US$50 billion) with net gearing ratio of 45.4%, down 10.2 percent points YoY; weighted average borrowing cost decreased by 36 basis points to 5.2%. The cash flow to short-term debt ratio stood at 2.3x.

Despite the industry in China as whole going through a period of significant adjustment, Country Garden’s sound operations and stable financial management assured the firm continued recognition and support from credit rating agencies and major financial institutions. 

The real estate industry in mainland China entered a downward cycle during the second half of 2021, with the three major international rating agencies having cumulatively downgraded the rating or outlook of Chinese real estate developers some 250 times, reflecting the impact that the downturn had on the affected developers and their ability to raise or borrow funds. However, both Moody’s and Fitch maintained their investment-grade rating on Country Garden, while Standard & Poor’s kept the developer’s “BB +” rating and outlook of “positive”.