Chinese developer Country Garden posts record 6-month net profit (updated)

SOHO China

22/08/2017 07:57

(Adds Forest City, other details) 
    * Reports about 39 pct jump in net profit; core profit up 35 
pct 
    * Says expects further revenue growth in future 
    * Says Forest City project well received by overseas 
investors 
 
    By Clare Jim 
    HONG KONG, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Country Garden Holdings Co Ltd 
 2007.HK , China's top property developer by sales, reported a 
record high six-month net profit as business in smaller cities 
continued to boom. 
    Government curbs to rein in property prices in China have 
weighed on larger cities, with July showing the slowest growth 
in home prices since August 2016, although business in smaller 
centres have remained robust.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1L02Z6   
    Country Garden, which focuses on smaller cities, said its 
net profit rose 39.2 percent from a year ago to 7.5 billion yuan 
over the six months to June, highest ever half-yearly earnings. 
    The company also saw it core profit, which excludes 
revaluation gains, jump 35 percent to 7.2 billion yuan.  
    Its revenue for the period rose 35.5 percent to 77.7 billion 
yuan and it said it expects further growth in the future given a 
number of pre-sold but unrecognised projects. 
    Country Garden, which has an internal target to double sales 
this year to 600 billion yuan, posted 288.9 billion yuan sales 
for the first six months, more than double year-ago levels. This 
helped the company climb two notches to the top developer spot.  
    It did not give details on how much sales came from its 
$100-billion mega development in Malaysia, Forest City, but said 
"the project has been well received by overseas enterprises and 
investors".  
    The company has largely halted promoting the project to 
mainland buyers since earlier this year in response to Beijing's 
moves to stop capital flight into offshore investments. 
    A Country Garden executive recently told Reuters the company 
would struggle to match 2016 home sales this year at Forest 
City, despite greater marketing outside the mainland. Forest 
City accounted for 6 percent of the group's contracted sales 
last year.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1KP3ZC urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1GN207  
    Among other Chinese developers, Guangzhou R&F Properties 
 2777.HK  has reported a 22 percent rise in its first-half core 
profit to 2.1 billion yuan, while Soho China  0410.HK  saw a 565 
percent jump in net profit to 3.98 billion yuan due to higher 
valuation gains on investment properties.  
 
 (Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Himani Sarkar) 
 ((clare.jim@thomsonreuters.com; +852 2912 6653; Reuters 
Messaging: clare.jim.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: COUNTRY GARDEN RESULTS/