– with Cultivation Refinement and Steady Progress while Consolidating its Foundation
In the first half of 2024, in the face of the downward pressure on China’s real estate market, Zhong An Group Limited (Zhong An Group or the Company, HKG: 672), a leading real estate developer in China’s Yangtze River Delta region, responded proactively to the situation and kept pace with the times, and continued to cultivate its business in the Yangtze River Delta region. The Company has continued to optimize its business structure by strengthening its foundation and refining its internal strengths, and promote a steady improvement in its operations to achieve a resilient growth in its results. During the period, the Company’s revenue amounted to approximately RMB9,282.9 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 127.6%; gross profit amounted to approximately RMB1,830.0 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 161.7%; gross profit margin amounted to approximately 19.7%, representing a year-on-year increase of 2.6 percentage points.
Revenue Doubled, “Burden Reduction” Strengthened Safety Bottom Line
In the first half of 2024, in response to the overall weak sales in the real estate industry due to economic and market conditions, Zhong An Group, with the core focus on “securing delivery, stabilizing operations, and controlling risks”, strengthened cost control, enhanced resource integration and team collaboration efficiency, and launched the “Harvest Together, Seek Development” all-staff marketing campaign, which was able to boost sales performance and further improve economic benefits.
During the period, the recognized GFA sold by Zhong An Group was approximately 414,373 sq.m., representing a year-on-year increase of 136.8%, and the recognized sales amount was approximately RMB8,920.8 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 145.9%. At the same time, the average property sales price per sq.m. was approximately RMB21,528, representing a year-on-year increase of 3.9%.
On the basis of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, Zhong An Group also focused on “burden reduction” and adoptd a more prudent financial policy to maintain abundant capital and a stable and healthy capital structure. As of 30 June 2024, the Company had total assets of approximately RMB42,394 million. Total debt asset ratio and net gearing ratio remained at a reasonable level of approximately 69.1% and 44.8%, respectively.
Enhanced In-depth Urban Development in Yangtze River Delta, With High-Quality Land Reserve to Ensure Long-Term Supply
Following the development path of strategic focus on “in-depth urban development” and “in-depth quality development”, Zhong An Group has continuously enriched its land reserve to prepare for its long-term development needs. As of 30 June 2024, the total GFA of the Company’s land reserve was approximately 8.10 million sq.m., of which 83% was in the Yangtze River Delta, with more than 40 projects on sale. The average acquisition cost of its overall land reserve was approximately RMB2,845 per sq.m. The land reserve is of high quality and will be sufficient for development in the next five years or more, which can effectively support the Company’s business expansion.
Meanwhile, with “green, low-carbon, intelligent and safe” as its core indicators, Zhong An Group has refined the six methods of “Community Foundation, Boundless Corridor, Boundless Landscape, Boundless Elevation, Boundless Apartment and Boundless Courtyard”, and has continuously iterated its new product portfolio to build “Good Houses” of Zhong An. As a result of these initiatives, in the first half of 2024, the Company successfully delivered more than 5,500 housing units with a delivery area of 781,000 sq.m.
In addition, the Company has spared no effort in building a full life cycle service system of “Nine quality services for long-term living”, which covers various aspects such as quality control, risk control, secure delivery, public sharing club, satisfaction management, pain points concern, 400 call centre, etc., to genuinely provide owners with “good services” of good residences for long-term living, thus steadily increasing customer satisfaction. According to the“Chinese Urban Residents’ Satisfaction Survey ” conducted by the China Index Research Institute, the overall satisfaction score of Zhong An Group in the first half of the year was 80.2 points, which was 8.6 points higher than the industry average.
With solid financial performance and comprehensive internal and external strengths, Zhong An Group received awards again and its brand power has been further demonstrated. In the first half of 2024, the Company walked away with four awards, namely, “2024 Top 100 China Real Estate Developers”, “2024 Excellent Enterprise in Real Estate Operation Safety in China”, “2024 Top 10 Hong Kong Listed Domestic Property Companies with Investment Value” and “2024 Top 10 Hong Kong Listed Domestic Property Companies with Financial Stability”, awarded by the China Index Research Institute.
It is also worth mentioning that in the first half of 2024, Zhong An Group adhered to the corporate values of “Charity from Zhong An and Love across the World”, actively participated in social welfare and demonstrated its corporate responsibility. As of 30 June 2024, the Company had donated more than RMB1 billion, helped more than 2 million people, provided over 21,000 Wings of Zhong volunteer services, and organized more than 160 public welfare activities, covering more than 10 cities in 4 provinces in China over the past 27 years. The Company was credited as a social organization of 4A level by the Civil Affairs Department of Zhejiang Province, awarded the title of “Advanced Member Unit” by the Zhejiang Provincial Charity Federation, and received a full score of the “China Foundation Transparency Index · FTI2023” from the China Foundation Center and was selected as one of the “2023 Tech for Good Cases of Chinese Enterprises” by the Case Centre for E-Commerce and Digital Economy of Colleges and Universities.
Looking ahead, as the national new type of urbanization is progressing steadily, there is still room for high-quality development of the real estate industry. Zhong An Group will continue to follow the trend, give full play to its strategic advantage of diversified synergies, deeply root in the Yangtze River Delta region, and, based on the principle of enabling the people to live and work in peace and contentment, steadily and pragmatically focus on the creation of good houses, good services and good life, so as to consolidate the value foundation of sustainable development.