Country Garden, China’s third-largest property firm by contracted sales in 2016, posted a 39.2 per cent jump in first half net profit to 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) year on year, boosted by strong demand and low house inventory in the mainland.
The earnings beat the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg by 23 per cent.
Its contracted sales also soared 131 per cent to 288.9 billion yuan in the first half. Country Garden raised its sales target for this year from 400 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan, a 62 per cent surge from last year’s actual sales number 308 billion yuan.
In addition, the company said the number of mainland Chinese investors among buyers of the US$100 billion Forest City in Malaysia were “negligible”, as Beijing tightens its capital outflow controls.
“China’s regulations on overseas investment and capital outflow didn’t affect our business. All our projects have been approved by the government and followed the country’s regulations,” said Mo Bin, president and executive director at Country Garden.
Shares of the company closed 1.7 per cent higher on Tuesday at HK$9.72, having risen 124 per cent since the beginning of this year.
Morgan Stanley retains “equal-weight” on Country Garden.
