The Fortune Global 500 list, one of the most authoritative rankings tabulating the business performance of companies worldwide, was officially released today, with Chinese property developer Country Garden (stock code: 2007.HK), which entered the list for the first time in 2017, ranked 353th, moving up 114 places from 467th last year. On the recently released 2018 edition of the Forbes Global 2000 list, Country Garden Holdings had moved up to the 143rd spot, jumping 130 places from a year earlier.
Rapid, steady growth spanning a decade: from 17.5 billion yuan (approx. US$2.6 billion) to 550.8 billion yuan (approx. US$82.5 billion)
The Fortune Global 500 is an annual ranking based on revenue. In 2017, Country Garden achieved gross revenue of 226.9 billion yuan (approx. US$33.6 billion), a jump of 46 per cent year on year.
Since its founding in 1992, Country Garden Holdings has evolved from a small Chinese residential property business with only one property in Shunde District, Foshan, a mid-sized city in Guangdong province, into a large international real estate developer with over 1,900 residential properties across the globe and property developments spanning over 700 cities and towns across China. Meanwhile, the developer has shifted its focus from the development of big residential properties in the suburbs of first- and second-tier Chinese cities to the development of premium residences at the heart of third- and fourth-tier Chinese cities, and, more recently, to the integration of cities and industries by developing tech-driven towns.
In response to the new urbanization in China, Country Garden Holdings has been committed to building high quality but affordable residences, while providing the owners with a comprehensive suite of support facilities related to their daily needs as well as education, healthcare, tourism and entrepreneurship, with the aim of enhancing the quality of life for the residents of China’s mid-tier cities.
Over the past ten years, Country Garden Holdings has experienced substantial growth in terms of both sales and overall rankings in the Chinese property market, and has become the largest residential property developer in the country, with sales surging from 17.5 billion yuan (approx. US$2.6 billion) in 2008 to 550.8 billion yuan (approx. US$82.0 billion) in 2017. During the first half of 2018, the developer significantly outperformed the market with contracted sales reaching 412.5 billion yuan (approx. US$61.4 billion).
Standardized management and control: maintaining the highest quality as the company’s lifeline
At Country Garden, company chairman Yang Guoqiang has always emphasized that “Quality and property management are our lifelines”, with every one of the 180,000 employees required to consider every detail of the company’s operations with the spirit of craftsmanship.
Country Garden has repeatedly garnered several of China’s most coveted awards in the real estate and construction engineering sectors, among them, the China Civil Engineering Zhantianyou Award, the China Construction Project Luban Award, the National Green Construction Demonstration Project and the National AAA Safe and Civilized Demonstration Site. Recently, several of the company’s projects were selected as candidates for the eighth Guangxia Award.
In addition, Country Garden has also achieved breakthroughs in terms of the construction process and quality by rolling out several new technology and concept innovations. The company’s proprietary Standard and Shareable Geospatial Foundation (SSGF), a construction system based on fully interspersed construction and an integrated design of the building’s molds coupled with meticulous management, has incorporated more than 20 new technologies, helping solve several common quality problems at the source including structural cracks and leaks. The labor cost is one-third lower than what is normally seen for the traditional process with projects being completed in half the usual time, making it possible for homebuyers to acquire high-quality residences at a more affordable price.
Improved prospects for city-industry integration and long-term rentals
With the real estate market having matured beyond the quick-buck syndrome that characterized the sector in China during much of the last decade, and with such trends supported by government policies that discourage house-flipping and encourage innovation-driven development, in addition to the residential housing sector, Country Garden has entered into new areas, including city-industry integration and long-term apartment rentals, both of which are complemented with an end-to-end suite of support services, providing access to financial, property management, commercial, entertainment, healthcare and educational resources to meet the homeowner’s or renter’s various needs, resulting in a genuine economic transformation of the neighborhood and city where the project is located.
With an exploratory effort spanning nearly two years, the real estate developer’s city-industry integration strategy is being constantly improved, on the back of the roll out of more than 10 sci-tech towns, now home to 1,700 companies, including 52 of the world’s leading 500 companies, among them such names as Cisco and Midea.
Following on the success of the real estate’s formula of not just building residences but of providing a comprehensive lifestyle solution for the homeowner, Country Garden’s brand value has moved beyond the real estate sector. The real estate developer has been listed among the top 100 companies in two authoritative global company rankings – Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000, demonstrating that its value and competitive strength are recognized by the market.