Annual Report Insights | The veteran leaves, and net profit attributable to the parent company hasn’t reached 100 million—how can Greentown China break the deadlock?

Under the backdrop of an industry-wide deep adjustment, even Greentown China (hereinafter referred to as “Greentown”), after being transformed into a state-owned enterprise, has not been able to avoid the downturn.

On the last day of March, Greentown released its full-year 2025 results. Revenue was RMB 154.97B, down 2.3% from RMB 158.55B in 2024. Net profit attributable to shareholders was only RMB 71M, down 95.6% from RMB 15.96 billion in 2024, reaching a new low.

For the abrupt plunge in net profit attributable to shareholders, Greentown in its announcement attributed the decline to industry adjustment, the disposal of long-cycle inventory, a decline in gross margin, losses from joint ventures and associates, and the recognition of asset impairment provisions. However, once the financial statements are broken down, the structural imbalance in profit becomes apparent.

Net profit attributable to shareholders falls to “below RMB 1.6B”

Source of data: Company announcements, Eastmoney.com. Jindong Finance reporter Duan Wenping; chart by Jintong

The annual report shows that in 2025, Greentown achieved revenue of RMB 154.97B, down 2.3% from RMB 158.55B in 2024; profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 71M, down 95.6% from RMB 1.6B in 2024.

Regarding the cause of the collapse in net profit attributable to shareholders, Greentown stated in its announcement that it was mainly because the real estate market was still in an adjustment period, and in order to promote long-term development, the company continued to actively drive the disposal of long-cycle inventory. This led to a decline in the gross margin recognized upon revenue settlement in 2025 and a decline in its share of joint venture and associate company performance. At the same time, in 2025 the company recognized a net loss of RMB 4.92B from impairment of relevant assets and fair value changes (RMB 4.92B in 2024), thereby affecting profit attributable to shareholders.

By looking through the income statement, it can be seen that Greentown’s revenue fell only slightly by 2.26%, but gross profit declined by 8.7% to RMB 598M—this is the source of profit pressure. In 2025, Greentown’s gross margin was 11.9%, down 0.9 percentage points from 12.8% in 2024. Among them, the gross margin for property sales was 11.2%, down 0.5 percentage points from 11.7% in 2024.

As for asset impairment, impairment of non-financial assets was about RMB 2.9 billion, and expected credit impairment was about RMB 2.0 billion. Both impairment items remained at high levels in succession, continuously and rigidly consuming profit.

More importantly, losses from associates and joint ventures expanded significantly, further dragging down profit. In 2025, Greentown recorded a loss of RMB 536M from its share of joint venture performance, and its share of associate companies’ performance was a loss of RMB 1.13B. Combined losses were RMB 633M, compared with losses of RMB 501M in 2024—an increase in losses of RMB 2.29B.

In response, Greentown said that this was mainly due to the rising equity proportion of newly acquired projects in recent years, fewer new joint venture and associate projects, leading to lower sales revenue; meanwhile, affected by the industry downturn, gross margin also declined to some extent.

By this point, in 2025, Greentown achieved profit within the year of RMB 70.99M, down 44.9% year over year. Of that, profit attributable to the company’s shareholders was only RMB 2.22B, down 95.6% year over year; non-controlling shareholders’ equity was RMB 2.215 billion, accounting for as much as 96.9%.

This means that almost all of the profit generated by the company over the full year was taken by non-controlling shareholders (minority shareholders in cooperation projects), while the parent company’s shareholders only received a small remainder—this is the most direct reason for the abrupt decline in net profit attributable to shareholders.

At the results briefing, Greentown’s management said it expects that profit in 2026 will still face a certain level of pressure.

Management also revealed that the scale of land acquisitions for 2026 was preliminarily set at around RMB 100 billion, and the specific implementation will be adjusted appropriately according to market dynamics.

In 2025, Greentown added 50 new projects, with a total saleable area of approximately 3.18 million square meters. The Group assumed costs of about RMB 51.1 billion, and the company expects the newly added developable value to reach RMB 135.5 billion, ranking fourth in the industry. The average equity interest ratio of newly added projects is about 69%, maintaining a relatively high level.

Guo Jiafeng, an old hand at Greentown, retires; the CCCC group further gains control of Greentown

On the eve of the results release, Greentown announced an important executive personnel adjustment: Guo Jiafeng, a veteran who has served the company for nearly 30 years, retired.

The announcement shows that Guo Jiafeng resigned as executive director, a member of the ESG Committee, and executive chief executive officer, as well as all other positions in the Group; Zhou Anqiao resigned as non-executive director; and Zhu Yuchen resigned as an independent non-executive director, as well as a member of the Audit Committee and the Remuneration Committee, and the Chairperson of the Nomination Committee.

Geng Zhongqiang was appointed as acting chief executive officer, responsible for day-to-day operations. Geng Zhongqiang is a typical CCCC group background executive. In July 2019, he was appointed executive director and executive general manager of Greentown. Greentown’s management stated that once the appointment process for the chief executive officer is completed, it will report immediately.

Guo Jiafeng joined Greentown in May 1999 and was one of the last flags of the “old Greentown people.” With his retirement, the CCCC Group, the largest shareholder, has once again substantially strengthened its control over Greentown.

This is not a sudden change, but rather the continuation of a power handover that has been taking place for two years. In March 2025, Zhang Yadong stepped down as chairman of the board of directors, and Cheng Yun Liu of the CCCC group took over. Subsequently, Geng Zhongqiang took office as a non-executive director of Greentown’s management and as co-chairman of the board of directors. In July 2025, the former executive chief executive officer Li Sen exited, and Zhao Hui of the CCCC group was appointed secretary of the Party Committee and executive chief executive officer.

At present, among the 10 members of Greentown’s board of directors, there are 6 people in total who are executive directors and non-executive directors. Of these, 3 are from the CCCC group, 2 are from Jardine Matheson, and only 1 is from the Greentown side.

From chairman, chief executive officer, executive chief executive officer to core directors, the CCCC group has gradually completed comprehensive leadership and dominance over Greentown’s governance layer.

With the departure of old hands and tightened control from the CCCC side, whether Greentown can rely on its state-owned enterprise background to stabilize profits, restore net profit attributable to shareholders, and return to a track of steady growth will be the biggest focus for 2026 and even 2027.

Jindong Finance reporter Duan Wenping

Edited by Yang Juanjuan

Proofread by Mu Xiangtong