China Evergrande H1 core profit surges to 27.3b yuan

Hong Kong

CHINA Evergrande Group, the nation's No 3 property developer by sales, said its first-half core profit surged more than three-fold due to a substantial rise in average selling prices, while early redemption of bonds also aided earnings.

Evergrande, which has one of the largest debt piles among Chinese corporates, said it aimed to cut its net debt ratio to around 70 per cent by June 2020 from 240 per cent now, helped partly by the introduction of a third round of strategic investments of 30 billion yuan (S$6.1 billion) to 50 billion yuan by its unit, Hengda Real Estate Group.