China’s real estate giant Country Garden (stock code: 02007.HK) failed to timely disclose debt defaults, leading to criticism and inclusion in the integrity file of the company’s board chairman Yang Huiyan and others by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
On the evening of February 10, Country Garden announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the company and executive director cum chairman Yang Huiyan, executive director cum co-chairman Mo Bin, and executive director cum CFO Wu Bijun recently received a “Decision on Disciplinary Action” issued by the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Due to the company’s failure to timely disclose debt defaults for the periods from August to December 2023, January to June 2024, and July to December 2024 in accordance with relevant bond listing rules of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the exchange took self-disciplinary measures against the company and the individuals listed, criticized them, and recorded it in their integrity file.
Country Garden’s announcement stated that the violations were due to the company’s inability to disclose debt defaults in a timely manner for “objective reasons,” and not because the relevant individuals neglected their duties. Therefore, the board of directors believed there was no reason to doubt the integrity and capabilities of Yang Huiyan and others, and they were deemed suitable to continue as executive directors of the company.
Country Garden, originating from Shunde, Guangdong, is a privately-owned real estate enterprise known for high turnover and extensive presence in third and fourth-tier cities, having been listed on the Fortune Global 500 list for multiple years, ranking 460th in 2025.
Impacted by the cold winter of the real estate sector, Country Garden faced a debt crisis in September 2022. At that time, S&P downgraded Country Garden’s credit rating from “BB+” to “BB,” and later Country Garden applied to withdraw the rating. In August 2023, Moody’s further lowered the company’s rating from Ba3 to B1 (non-investment grade). In the same month, Country Garden failed to make timely payments of interest on two bonds totaling $22.5 million.
Country Garden has been experiencing consecutive losses in recent years. The company reported a pre-tax loss of 167.3 billion yuan for the full year of 2023 and a pre-tax loss of 10.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2024. Although the extent of losses narrowed in 2024, the first half of 2025 witnessed a larger loss of 19.08 billion yuan.
The plight of Country Garden reflects the overall downturn of the Chinese real estate market. Data released by the China Index Research Institute and the CRIC research center showed that from January to August 2025, sales of the top 100 real estate enterprises in China decreased by 13.3% year-on-year. Sales of various tiers of real estate enterprises witnessed varying degrees of decline, with the average sales of the top ten enterprises amounting to 114.5 billion yuan, a 12.1% decrease year-on-year.
Country Garden is currently pushing for debt restructuring and ensuring project deliveries. At the annual work meeting on February 2, Country Garden Group revealed that in 2025, they completed the delivery of nearly 170,000 housing units; nine onshore bond restructurings totaling approximately 13.77 billion yuan were approved, with the overall debt reduction estimated to be nearly 90 billion yuan.
Despite being in a critical period of debt restructuring, Country Garden’s performance in the capital market remains weak. On February 10, Country Garden’s Hong Kong stock fell by 1.75%, closing at 0.28 Hong Kong dollars per share, a 98% decline from its peak of 16.762 Hong Kong dollars per share (pre-restructuring) in 2018, with a current total market value of 11.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Country Garden was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 20, 2007. On the first day of trading, Country Garden opened at 7.00 Hong Kong dollars per share and closed at 7.27 Hong Kong dollars per share by 4:00 pm. Based on the closing price, Yang Huiyan, who then held 9.52 billion shares at the age of just 25, had a net worth of 69.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, becoming the “richest woman on the mainland China” at that time.
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