Country Garden
It becomes Number One Real Estate Company
By Morgan Brady
去年大家大概都被一则广告刷屏了，广告语中提到这是一座“新加坡旁森林城市……”，而其开发商正是碧桂园。碧桂园集团，即碧桂园控股有限公司，总部位于广东佛山顺德，是中国最大的新型城镇化住宅开发商。采用集中及标准化的运营模式，业务包含物业发展、建安、装修、物业管理、物业投资、酒店开发和管理等。碧桂园提供多元化的产品以切合不同市场的需求。各类产品包括联体住宅及洋房等住宅区项目以及车位及商铺。同时亦开发及管理若干项目内的酒店，提升房地产项目的升值潜力。除此之外，同时经营独立于房地产开发的酒店。碧桂园是中国新型城镇化进程的身体力行者，是全球绿色生态智慧城市的建造者，不仅为超过400个城镇带来现代化的城市面貌，提升当地人民的居住条件和生活品质，还在新加坡旁以当今世界先进的城市设计理念首建立体分层现代城市——森林城市。
碧桂园总裁莫斌曾表示，海外市场是碧桂园目前重要的拓展方向，希望未来3-5年内形成年投资500亿元以上额规模。碧桂园已经在马来西亚、澳大利亚和印尼等国家成功获得项目，印度、越南、美国等国家均已进入碧桂园的战略之中。在碧桂园已经落地的海外项目中，位于马来西亚新山的森林城市可谓头号海外项目。这座森林城市公寓，主打“新加坡旁”概念。2016年，森林城市实现销售额为180亿元，因受外汇政策等因素影响，该项目在国内停售，碧桂园与中国信保签约战略，双方将合作共同开拓海外市场。
就在刚刚过去的四月，《泰晤士报》等多家英国媒体报道了碧桂园以约7.7亿人民币的价格在东伦敦地区拿地，并被冠以“世界第一大房地产开发企业进军英国”的标题。碧桂园联合一家香港基金，从英国开发商Lindhill和Galliard手中买下了位于伦敦东二区的住宅开发地块Ailsa Wharf，买地价格约8000多万英镑（约7.7亿人民币）。这笔交易意味着碧桂园正式进军英国，公开亮相伦敦住宅开发市场。
早在2014年，碧桂园即已进军澳大利亚市场，斥资7300万澳元购买位于悉尼市西北部的一处开发用地，瞄准了高端住宅市场。碧桂园也与美高梅酒店集团举办了合作签约仪式，将共同打造位于巴厘岛努沙杜瓦度假区，占地约14公顷的碧桂园巴厘岛森林海岸项目。
综上可见，碧桂园集团实力雄厚，发展迅速。如果碧桂园保持目前的发展态势，其股价可能会继续上涨。碧桂园的优势在于分散其房地产投资组合，因此其对不同房地产市场的风险抵抗能力较强。有意投资房地产的人士可以阅读下文加深了解。
As one of Asia’s top 50 companies according to Forbes, China’s Country Garden, a real estate giant based in Guangdong Province, has managed to reach the number 1 rank on the list of real estate firms in China. The company was established in 1992, and it has reached this rank last year after achieving RMB 580.8 ($89.3 billion) in contractual sales, surpassing China Evergrande real estate firm owned by billionaire Xu Jiayin in terms of sales performance.
Surpassing its rivals
The company has also been able to surpass its other rival in the real estate development domain, China Vanke. Those three companies remained however in the three leading positions last year, albeit that the ranking has changed. Together, the three companies were able to achieve 45.5% increase in sales on an annual basis in 2017 from 2016. And the total sales of the three reached RMB 3.19 trillion ($489.5 billion) in 2017.
Performance of Country Garden, in particular, as compared to its rivals was impressive. In 2017, it achieved an annual growth in sales of 88%, going up from RMB 309 billion ($47.5 billion) to RMB 581 billion ($89.3 billion). Its closest rival achieved a growth of only 36.7% in the same year.
Country Garden forms a consortium to invest in London
The company has formed a consortium recently with a fund in Hong Kong whose name remained undisclosed for the purpose of buying a land in Ailsa Wharf in the United Kingdom. The land was sold by UK developers Galliard Homes and Lindhill Homes and the deal was worth 80 million sterling pounds ($113 million).
The consortium plans to develop the land from a barren and unused area into a residential area with 780 homes worth of 400 million pounds. According to the company, who informed the Chinese media about the deal, the residential project will include 556 apartments, 229 subsidized homes, and four villas, to be surrounded by shops, with the availability of a public space.
Joining the Urban Development Institute of Australia
The company promotes good values such as good planning, affordable housing, and better infrastructure delivery, and as such, it has joined the Urban Development Institute of Australia on January 31st, 2018. This announcement came after the company acquired its first development project in Australia, as it has bought a Victorian development project in Wyndham Vale, about 36 kilometers west of Melbourne. The project’s target is to develop 4000 apartments over an area of 353 hectares. The houses will be surrounded by a 4000 square meter park and the project is set to be completed by the end of 2018.
Australian market is only one of the many places that the company operates in. Since its establishment more than a decade ago, it has built homes for over 3 million residents in around 400 cities around the world.
Building the world’s largest IBS facility
Back in May 2017, the company announced its plan to build the largest industrialized building system (IBS) factory in the world in Johor, Malaysia, with a cost of 2.6 billion RMB. Technologies from Germany, Italy, and China would be employed in the facility. The project will help Malaysia in generating job opportunities, estimated at 240000 jobs over the next 20 years, and developing the construction industry in the country, as it would make it as a whole more productive, efficient, sustainable, and safer. It would also improve the projects’ performance of technology transfer projects in terms of time, and help Malaysia achieve its objective of having smart technologies.
Country Garden’s stock performance
Country Garden is listed in Hong Kong stock exchange with a market capitalization of 30 billion Australian Dollars (previously). Today, its market capitalization is 363.928 billion HKD. Its stock price has increased from below 4 HKD in 2016 to over 15 HKD today. Most of the surge took place in 2017, which turned out to be a very positive year for the company. The stock price took a small dip in the beginning of 2018, but the uptrend can resume.
Other positive metrics for the company included a yearly return of 128% and a PE ratio of 10.84. The earnings per share stood at 1.23 HKD also. The company’s fundamentals signal further growth.
Conclusion
If Country Garden maintains its current performance, its stock price can keep on growing. A positive factor is that the company diversifies its property portfolio carefully, and thus its exposure to different real estate markets is dispersed well and the risks are mitigated. Furthermore, the company invests in regions with high potential growth such as Malaysia, making it primed for growth as well.
The company is not only first in China but has also made it to Forbes’ list of biggest public companies around the world and ranked 273rd in 2017. With no major barriers on its way, the company is set to achieve more growth during the ongoing year.
