2022 Fortune Global 500 List Released, With Country Garden Rising to the 138th

On August 3, Fortune magazine released its latest Fortune Global 500 list, on which Country Garden Holdings ("Country Garden") (02007.HK), China's leading real estate developer, moved up to the 138th. This marks the sixth consecutive year that Country Garden has been included in the list since its debut in 2017, demonstrating the company's strong development resilience and solid operational capabilities.

Fortune magazine has been publishing the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies by revenue since 1995. It is one of the most well-known and authoritative lists for gauging the comparative standing of companies in each industry on the global stage.

In the real estate industry, five Chinese real estate companies made the list this year, three fewer than the previous year. Country Garden rose to 138th place with US$81.91 billion in revenue and US$4.154 billion in profit. The company has climbed 329 places in six years since its entering the list in 2017.

In 2021, against the backdrop of a setback in confidence in China's real estate industry, Country Garden continued to show resilience in its performance with sturdy operations and a balanced development roadmap. According to its annual report, Country Garden recorded equity sales of 558 billion yuan (approx. US$83 billion) for the year 2021, with a return on equity rate of over 90% for the sixth consecutive year.

For the full year of 2021, Country Garden achieved operating revenue of 523.06 billion yuan, up 13% year on year. Gross profit, net profit and core net profit attributable to shareholders reached 92.78 billion yuan, 40.98 billion yuan and 26.93 billion yuan, respectively.

A diversified and balanced development plan effectively hedged against the risks associated with a narrow focus. By the end of 2021, Country Garden had 3,216 projects under development across China, with a footprint in 1,425 districts and counties in 299 prefecture-level cities in 31 provinces. Of the 3,216 projects, 75.4% are located in the country's five major urban clusters, 98% in regions with more than 500,000 residents and 93% in regions with a population inflow, showing the degree to which Country Garden has been able to identify and act upon the data gained from its analysis of China's demographics.

In the first half of 2022, the overall sales performance of real estate developers worldwide showed negative growth due to unfavorable factors such as the repeated COVID outbreaks leading to weak demand expectations. Statistics from China Real Estate Information Corp. (CRIC) show that the overall sales of the top 100 developers in the first half of the year fell by 50.3%. Country Garden's performance also declined due to the sluggish general conditions, nevertheless, its total equity sales still reached 185.1 billion yuan in the first half year, with a 95% payback rate in the first four months. The overall performance was better than the industry average. Furthermore, in the first half of this year, Country Garden completed the construction of and made available to the market more than 250,000 units (in 1,070 lots) in 214 cities throughout China as promised. This achievement served to convey continued confidence in the market.