Property giant Country Garden sees profit, revenue rise in 2018

GUANGZHOU, March 18 (Xinhua) -- China's leading property developer Country Garden Monday reported rises in major financial indicators including revenue and core profit in 2018.

The Guangdong-based company said its contract sales reached 501.88 billion yuan (about 74.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, a yearly rise of 31.25 percent.

Its revenue last year surged 67.1 percent to 379.08 billion yuan, while core profit stood at 34.13 billion yuan, marking an increase of 38.2 percent.

The company also said it had 242.54 billion yuan in cash reserves by the end of 2018, constituting 14.9 percent of total assets and suggesting healthy company finances.

Its robust growth took place as China's real estate sector expanded at a slower pace due to government controls. China's property sales in value gained 12.2 percent in 2018, down 1.5 percentage points from the previous year.

Country Garden operated 2,148 projects on the Chinese mainland by the end of last year, according to the company.