Country Garden, over the steepest hill

On March 23rd, Country Garden issued a notice that sent a seismic shock through the real estate industry.

In 2025, projected profits are between 1 billion and 2.2 billion yuan.

To put this into perspective, just a year ago, the company was亏损 35.145 billion yuan.

From massive losses to profitability, this once “universe-sized real estate company” has finally broken through the long night, reaching a critical turning point in its financial recovery.

This is not just a turnaround for a single company but also a “breakthrough” signal for the entire distressed property sector, injecting confidence into the industry.

01 Shedding Burdens

How did this profit come about? Country Garden is very transparent: it results from non-cash gains recorded during debt restructuring.

Don’t underestimate these words; behind them was a life-and-death escape.

Over the past three years, Country Garden has been fighting in a “no-man’s land.”

In 2022, it lost 6.052 billion yuan; in 2023, a loss of 178.4 billion yuan; in 2024, a loss of 32.835 billion yuan, totaling over 200 billion yuan in losses. Three consecutive years of deep losses led outsiders to believe this giant might never recover.

To stand up again, Country Garden launched a set of textbook-level measures:

By 2025, all nine domestic bond restructuring plans, totaling about 13.77 billion yuan, were approved, and restructuring of approximately $17.7 billion in offshore debt also took effect by year-end.

The overall debt reduction is estimated at nearly 90 billion yuan, with new debt financing costs dropping sharply to 1%-2.5%, saving significant interest expenses and easing cash flow pressures.

Unlike simple debt extensions, this round of restructuring involves “substantive debt reduction”—by issuing mandatory convertible bonds and capitalizing shares, fundamentally transforming debt into equity, directly increasing net assets.

In other words, Country Garden isn’t just pushing the “trouble” further down the road; it’s exchanging equity for survival, and time for space.

Meanwhile, offshore debt restructuring is rapidly taking shape. According to the share issuance report disclosed on March 5th, approximately 14.233 billion new shares were issued post-restructuring, accounting for about 51% of the pre-restructuring share capital. Since the restructuring took effect on December 30, 2025, Country Garden has paid about $398 million in cash to creditors within the first week.

02 Wound Healing

Country Garden’s management and organizational structure have also undergone major adjustments. At the end of last year, Executive Director and President Mo Bin was appointed Co-Chairman, retaining his director role; Executive Director, Executive Vice President, and CEO of Country Garden Property Group, Cheng Guangyu, was appointed as the company’s President.

The management team shifted from a “firefighting team” to an “operating team.” The co-chairman position also helps improve board efficiency to address the complex challenges facing Country Garden in this new phase.

At the same time, the company is systematically divesting family-controlled and legacy assets, selling core holdings in Wanda Commercial Management, Changxin Technology, key land in Guangzhou Asian Games City, and properties like the Foshan Hilton Hotel, raising over 10 billion yuan.

This bold reform has finally brought some operational improvement. In 2025, Country Garden achieved a total contracted sales amount of 33 billion yuan.

Fast forward to this year, the company reached its “no holiday during Spring Festival” subscription target in February, with daily subscription rates significantly increasing during the holiday period. According to CRIC data, in January-February 2026, Country Garden ranked among the top ten in China’s real estate sales by rights amount and transaction area.

During the monthly management meeting, President Cheng Guangyu emphasized that March and April would be key observation periods, requiring all staff to focus on the “Spring Thunder Action” and systematically advance sales.

Additionally, Cheng Guangyu revealed at the 2025 shareholders’ meeting that Country Garden currently has sufficient land reserves to support normal operations and development for some time, so there’s no rush to undertake new investments during the industry-wide inventory reduction phase.

03 Second Entrepreneurship

In November last year, after debt restructuring was finalized, Yang Huiyan, Chairwoman of the Board, first proposed the concept of “second entrepreneurship.”

She stated that the restructuring was a sign of creditors’ recognition of the company’s future, providing more room for normal operations. The next step is to systematically push forward the “transition,” which she described as a transformation and a “second entrepreneurship” for Country Garden.

In March, Yang Huiyan further clarified that 2026 would be the most critical year for transitioning from “delivering houses on time” to normal operations, outlining the development direction and framework for the next 3-5 years. She called for regional projects to solidly complete their phases to lay a foundation for future growth.

She said that the next 3-5 years are crucial for Country Garden’s accumulation and breakthrough, with the core strategy focusing on “building core competitiveness.”

The key to Country Garden’s transformation lies in the deep integration of organizational reform, technological innovation, and management innovation. She personally authored a new organizational vision: “Building a modern, lean, data- and technology-driven, market-sensitive, innovative, learning organization.”

In fact, Country Garden is actively preparing for “second growth.”

Before the earnings forecast was released, news of a large-scale recall of departing employees circulated online, drawing attention to the company again.

Country Garden responded that talent recruitment always aligns with actual business needs, through multiple channels such as internal talent development, rehiring excellent employees, and external recruitment.

The company also established a regular internal management review mechanism, annually examining and optimizing existing policies based on operational and management needs.

Country Garden emphasized that the recent “Rehiring of Departed Employees Management Measures” adjustment is a routine update of existing policies, not a new policy.

Industry insiders see this move as a signal that, after deep restructuring, the company’s focus has shifted substantively, actively replenishing its current operations and gradually entering a phase of “operational recovery.”

Meanwhile, to rebuild market trust, Country Garden has consistently prioritized “delivering houses on time” as a core task. From 2023 to 2025, nearly 1.15 million units were delivered, maintaining the industry’s top position in third-party rankings.

The company also set 2026 as the “year to finalize house delivery,” with a clear timetable to complete most deliveries by mid-year, freeing up resources to repair its balance sheet and restore normal operations.

Yang Huiyan’s “second entrepreneurship” is destined to be a tough journey.

Country Garden has proven its ability to “come back to life,” but whether it can truly regain its former growth engine on the basis of “staying alive” remains to be seen over time.

For the entire real estate industry, Country Garden’s light has been turned on, at least illuminating the path ahead.

Survive, and there is hope.