As China’s Country Garden struggles with debt, it’s ‘business as usual’ at Johor’s Forest City

[KUALA LUMPUR] Country Garden Holdings is facing a debt crisis at the moment, but the Chinese real estate developer’s projects and operations in Malaysia appear to be relatively unscathed – for the time being, at least.

Last Friday (Aug 11), the Guangdong-based property giant’s shares fell to a record low amid mounting concerns that it was preparing for a debt restructuring. As at the end of 2022, the Hong Kong-listed company had total liabilities of about US$194 billion.

A day earlier, Country Garden announced that it was likely to post a net loss of 45 billion yuan (S$8.4 billion) to 55 billion yuan for the first half of this year – a significant swing from its earnings of 1.9 billion yuan in the first six months of 2022.