Country Garden Forest City, Malaysia
Author | Sister Morse
Source | Morse Properties (ID: MorseHouse)
"I have a dream of a city where life is very safe, where there are no vehicles on the ground, where the facades of buildings are covered with plants, where parks are everywhere where people can bask in the sun, run and swim." This is one of the "Quotations of Chairman Yang" throughout Country Garden.
Before the epidemic, Chairman Yang, who often played on his own golf course in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, especially liked Malaysia.
His dream of a forest city was also fulfilled in Malaysia.
However, this overseas experiment, which lasted for nearly 10 years, is now in an embarrassing situation. The mood of Forest City buyers also fluctuated with a little broken dream.
Since the outbreak, Forest City has fallen silent. Occasionally, complaints from owners and messages such as suicide by security guards declare a sense of presence.
Country Garden (02007. On HK's official website, Malaysia's Johor Bahru Forest City still occupies an important position on the homepage, and its latest news is on August 13, which reads " Donated 75 Lenovo tablets to a local school " .
The absence of a visit from a Chinese guest means that it is difficult to have decent sales. On the eve of the release of Country Garden's semi-annual report, the employees who continue to stay in Country Garden Forest City are looking forward to the company's performance to be better, but also waiting for possible personnel adjustments.
On August 24, Country Garden released its semi-annual report: Country Garden achieved a total revenue of about 234.93 billion yuan, an increase of 27% year-on-year; net profit of about 22.42 billion yuan, a slight increase of 2.3% year-on-year; core net profit of about 15.22 billion yuan, a slight increase of 4.2% year-on-year.
In the same period last year, Country Garden's revenue and profit fell twice, and in the case of a very low base, the profit growth rate in the first half of this year was not obvious.
Template for world dreams
In 1992, after the spring breeze blew in China, everything was thriving.
The times make people! Yang Guoqiang, 40, took over Shunde Country Garden, which was not selling well. From a builder to a developer, Yang Guoqiang has achieved a transformation in his life.
After intervening in the real estate industry, Yang Guoqiang, who is very good at building houses, quickly became a well-known real estate enterprise. In 2010, Country Garden's sales reached 32.9 billion yuan. Country Garden also ranked in the Forbes Global 2000 Listed Companies for the first time.
In 2011, Yang Guoqiang also promoted Country Garden's "going out strategy" and selected Malaysia as the first stop for overseas development.
In September 2012, Country Garden, which has no projects in Wenzhou, appeared at the 7th Autumn Housing Fair in Wenzhou with two villas from Malaysia. In the book "My 1,000 Days in Country Garden", it was revealed that Chairman Yang also intervened in the Forest City project this year.
In December of that year, Country Garden won its third project in Malaysia, the Johor Bahru Golden Bay Project. It was the 20th anniversary and 5th anniversary of Country Garden's listing.
In 2013, Golden Bay sold nearly 7 billion yuan, making it the highest-selling developer in Malaysia. In the same period, Country Garden's sales also exceeded 100 billion yuan for the first time. In 2014, Country Garden's two projects in Malaysia, Golden Bay and Diamond City, had sales of RMB2.576 billion.
When the Golden Bay is singing all the way, the forest city is about to bloom. This is the giant project that carries Yang Guoqiang's dream.
According to the annual report, Country Garden and johor state governments hold 60% and 40% of the equity of the Forest City project respectively. This means that the policy land is leveled by the local government, Country Garden is responsible for construction and marketing, and the big cake is shared together, and the world dream is very beautiful.
Yang Guoqiang's calculation is to take Southeast Asia as the starting point and replicate the forest city abroad, looking forward to one day the income ratio at home and abroad reaches 1:1.
According to the information released by Country Garden, the original planned area of Forest City is 20 square kilometers, the planned investment amount is about 600 billion yuan, and the development cycle is expected to be up to 20 years.
In order to overcome the number one task, Chairman Yang spent one-third of his time in Forest City, and also asked the president to spend half of his time on it, while mobilizing the management responsible for finance, landscaping, marketing, advertising and media, strategy and international investment to intervene full-time; the concurrent documents required the full support of functional centers and subsidiaries.
Children can only be put on the wolf, and world-class projects must be a hit. Yang Guoqiang is well versed in this.
At that time, Country Garden spent a lot of money on CCTV prime time, Spring Festival Gala, Rio Olympics and other channels, and for a while, almost everyone in the forest city knew. This kind of large-scale marketing, that is, Professor Xu of Evergrande can surpass Chairman Yang. Under the large-scale marketing, Forest City seems to be able to look at the next Dubai overnight.
With some efforts, Forest City has ushered in its own highlight moment. At that time, then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Najib strongly supported President Yang. His assessment of Forest City goes like this: Johor and Forest City will become Malaysia's new economic growth center of gravity.
Chairman Yang also spent such time leisurely playing golf with important friends in Malaysia and Johor Bahru. It was a wonderful time. Now under the epidemic situation, Chairman Yang can only recall.
In 2016, Forest City achieved sales of 18 billion yuan. This year, Country Garden's sales were 308.8 billion yuan.
In 2017, Country Garden's sales reached 550 billion yuan, ranking the world's top 500 for the first time, and Yang Guoqiang finally realized his dream of being one of the world's top 500 companies.
In March 2017, the Sultan of Johor led members of the Royal Council to country garden headquarters in Foshan, Guangdong Province, and named Yang Guoqiang the title of Datuk of Johor.
The sultan, who has countless luxury cars, is well known in Southeast Asia, and his relationship with Malaysian political veteran Mahathir Is also quite delicate. A former Malaysian politician once mentioned possible concerns to Sister Morse many years ago. These concerns were ultimately fulfilled.
A "hidden" forest city
When people think that the world dream is getting closer and closer, it is the beginning of the nightmare of the forest city.
In 2017, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was 92 years old, accused forest city of being a gathering place for foreigners after visiting Forest City with great dissatisfaction.
In 2018, the thriving Forest City ushered in a storm, which was an important turning point for Forest City.
In 2018, at the age of 93, Mahathir became Malaysia's new prime minister. Yang Guoqiang bent down to the Kuala Lumpur Parliament Building to meet Mahathir. But to no avail, Mahathir said in public that Forest City would not be allowed to sell to foreigners and would not issue visas to foreign buyers.
When the wind and rain were very urgent, Morse sister also came to Forest City. At this time, Chinese customers who bought Forest City also came stubble by stubble.
A corner of the forest city beach in Country Garden, Malaysia
From October 2019 to the beginning of 2020, the project reported large-scale layoffs. Country Garden responded that it was only the merger of Malaysia and Singapore structures, and Country Garden Malaysia President Fu Jinling left the market for personal reasons.
From June 2020 to July 2021, complaints abound about false publicity and non-fulfillment of promises about the Forest City project.
A domestic home buyer complained that Forest City is a five-star pit. In addition, since the ground floor of the residential building of the project is a shop, the residential owners upstairs can only use commercial electricity. Some owners claimed they were unaware of the purchase. Morse sister grasped the situation that Malaysia stipulates that the building residential building with bottom merchants is based on commercial electricity. Electricity consumption per kWh in Malaysia is US$0.058 per kWh, while commercial electricity consumption is as high as US$0.096. The vast majority of residential buildings in Forest City are commercially powered.
In late May, more than 20 owners who also appealed to the country garden headquarters applied for check-out, and were told that they needed to bear a 30% penalty for check-out.
Outside of Forest City, Country Garden's other projects in Malaysia are also underperforming. People familiar with the matter told Sister Morse that only one of the 5 projects in Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur has sold well.
At present, the proportion of overseas project sales in the entire company has dropped sharply, and Country Garden's overseas regional companies have also made relatively large adjustments. Sister Morse heard that Su Baiyuan, who was in charge of Country Garden's overseas projects, had also left Malaysia a few months ago.
The presence of Forest City in Country Garden, in addition to the complaints all over the network, and the emergence of important positions on the home page of Country Garden, has slowly "hidden". Since 2018, Forest City has not been disclosed separately in its annual report.
Earlier, an influential person in the economic circles once said: Domestic enterprises that have grown up in China's special political and business environment are prone to problems when they go to sea, especially real estate projects.
Changing times are becoming more and more difficult to adapt to. Yang Guoqiang's world dream seems to have also been beaten by wind and rain.
The road ahead of Country Garden is unknown
The highlight and gloom of Forest City also largely coincide with the highlight and weight of Country Garden.
2018 is also an eventful autumn in the real estate industry, and it is also an eventful autumn in Country Garden.
This year, documents, chat screenshots, paragraphs about Country Garden's high turnover, as well as construction site accidents and project quality problems caused by high turnover, were widely circulated on the Internet, pushing Country Garden to the cusp of the storm.
To this end, Yang Guoqiang and his subordinates had some collapse when they were drunk, burst into tears, and repeatedly chanted in their mouths: "I have been financially free, I am doing things now, I really just want to do something practical, and everything I am doing now is for the betterment of society." ”
In the face of the media, Yang Guoqiang also asked the media: "Should Country Garden be the boss, you teach me, what should I do?" ”
This year, Country Garden achieved an operating income of 379.08 billion yuan.
Today, Country Garden has come to the tail of the times.
Country Garden's development history
Country Garden ranks 139th on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list, a cumulative increase of 328 places from 2017 when it first appeared on the list.
Under the changes in the market and the increase in real estate regulation, many real estate enterprises are facing life and death. Under the expectation that the overseas strategy is difficult to achieve Chairman Yang, Country Garden will continue to be under greater pressure in the future.
In 2020, Country Garden's annual revenue and profit fell due to price cuts. At the same time, gross profit, gross profit margin, net profit, cash on sale, earnings per share and other indicators have declined; equity contract sales and total asset growth rates have also been significantly lower than in previous years.
According to the three red line standards, in 2020, Country Garden's asset-liability ratio after deducting pre-received accounts was 80.53%, stepping on one and falling into the yellow file. That is, 1.76 trillion yuan of 2 trillion yuan of assets is liabilities.
According to the news, in the comprehensive satisfaction of housing enterprises in 2020, Country Garden has declined, and it is in the industry short board in quality, delivery and maintenance, "the average level of 10 points in the industry, Country Garden only 4 points." Buyers' complaints about real estate companies are often at a disadvantage. A lawsuit has been fought for many years, and the buyer can't afford to hurt.
Entering 2021, there are still hidden worries behind Country Garden's seeming glory. The semi-annual report data that has just been released is also being verified.
As of June 30, 2021, Country Garden achieved contracted sales of approximately RMB303.09 billion and a contracted sales area of approximately 34.51 million square meters, up 14% and 8% year-on-year, respectively.
In the first half of 2021, Country Garden achieved a total revenue of about 234.93 billion yuan, an increase of 27% year-on-year, of which the revenue from real estate development was 227.9 billion yuan, an increase of 26.6% year-on-year.
As of June 30, 2021, Country Garden's available cash balance was approximately $186.238 billion, compared to total interest-bearing liabilities of $324.24 billion.
The road ahead of Forest City is unknown, and under the decline in comprehensive satisfaction, Yang Guoqiang, who is almost 70 years old, still has not stopped. He is willing to contribute to the construction of his old bank. On July 9, 2021, Yang Guoqiang, founder and chairman of the board of directors of Country Garden, stressed at the group management meeting that "we must go all out to do a good job in the pilot project of robot building." Starting next year, we'll all build houses with robots. ”
Building a house, relying on people can't do it! Is it okay to use all robots?
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