By Bingyan Wang


Chinese developer Country Garden Holdings Co. reported its first annual loss in over a decade amid a downturn in China's property sector.

The company posted a net loss of CNY6.05 billion ($878.5 million), compared with profit of CNY26.80 billion for 2021, it said Thursday.

The loss came as revenue slid 18% to CNY430.37 billion. The property giant reported full-year contracted sales of CNY357.47 billion, down from CNY558.00 billion in 2021.

The property sector "experienced an unprecedentedly difficult business environment" in 2022, Country Garden said.

However, the developer's liquidity position improved amid Beijing's deleveraging campaign. Its net gearing ratio at end-2022 fell 5.4 percentage points from a year ago to 40.0%. Its available cash was CNY147.55 billion, compared with CNY181.30 billion at the end of 2021, Country Garden said.

Looking ahead, although Chinese authorities have issued a slew of supportive property policies, the developer said it remains cautious that "the market will not recover overnight," noting that the sector is still under great strain. Country Garden said it expects to keep optimizing its debt structure and improve the balance sheet.


Write to Bingyan Wang at bingyan.wang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-30-23 0128ET