Chairman’s Statement in Annual Report 2022

ZHONG SHENG JIAN
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Dear Shareholders,

2022 was a tumultuous year defined by challenges and disruptions brought about by the lingering COVID-19 epidemic, interest rate hikes and a volatile geopolitical environment. The confluence of the abovementioned and other factors, including the fallout arising from mass large-scale and mid-scale real estate developers defaulting on their debt obligations, demographic changes, stringent epidemic control measures and slower economic growth, led to the real estate industry in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) experiencing its first recession ever since it embarked on the nationwide housing reforms. Key indicators such as government land sales, housing sales transaction, floor areas of new launched and completed property projects have all reported substantial decline. Some real estate developers were facing insolvency or even failed to deliver properties on schedule, resulting in an in-depth regularisation in demand and supply of the real estate market.

It was only towards the end of 2022, the PRC government reaffirmed the importance of the real estate industry by putting in place a series of incentive policies to encourage real estate investment and financing as well as to spur domestic consumption.

As I pen this letter to close out the financial year of Yanlord Land Group Limited (“Company” and together with its subsidiaries, “Yanlord” or “Group”) ended December 31, 2022 (“FY 2022”), I would like to take this opportunity to share on how the Group navigating through this period of complexity and change.

AMIDST THE OVERALL CRISIS FACED BY THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY, REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATIONS HAVE BECOME MORE PRONOUNCED; IT IS ONLY THROUGH REASONABLE REGIONALFOCUSED STRATEGIES, COMPLEMENTED BY STRONG DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION CAPABILITIES, COULD INDUSTRY PLAYERS STAND TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE AGAINST ADVERSITY

The PRC real estate industry was in a recessionary phase, where in 2022, housing sales transaction in third and fourth-tier cities shrunk; while first and second-tier cities saw a divergence in performance. This had impacted some of the cities in which Yanlord is operating in, specifically, the Group’s projects in Tianjin and Shenzhen fell below the Group’s investment expectations. Notwithstanding the predicament faced by the real estate industry, the market in the Yangtze River Delta region, where Yanlord is strategically positioned, remains healthy. The Group’s projects in Shanghai, Suzhou and Wuxi, among others, have withstood the prevailing market downturn and were still favored by customers, contributing to contracted pre-sales growth for the Group. The Group’s long-term strategy of focusing on Yangtze River Delta has been a formidable cornerstone of its performance and liquidity, the Group together with its joint ventures and associates recorded total contracted property pre-sales of RMB68.091 billion for FY 2022, representing an increase of 14.3% year-on-year.

In particular, the Board of Directors of the Company (“Board”) are pleased that despite the stringent epidemic control measures implemented in the PRC in 2022, the Group achieved a commendable pre-sales performance and maintain on-schedule construction progress of the property developments across multiple cities in the PRC. This was particularly noteworthy in Shanghai which were lockdown for two months, during which period Yanlord’s project development team was able to mobilise resources and realise the smooth construction progress of projects, successfully launching various projects in Shanghai for pre-sales, all of which achieved a 100% sellout on their respective launch dates. The newly established Wuxi project had also garnered better sales and positive market reputation compared to competing projects. Yanlord’s strong execution and management capabilities in grasping market opportunities was a key factor to its success.

Yanlord’s residential projects in Singapore also delivered a satisfactory performance, with a total contracted pre-sales contribution of approximately SGD637 million (equivalent to approximately RMB3.1 billion) for FY 2022. Apartments of Dairy Farm Residences have been fully sold and are expected to be handed over to customers in the coming years.

In FY 2022, the Group together with its joint ventures and associates successfully delivered residential and commercial units on a total gross floor area (“GFA”) of 1.72 million square metres (“sqm”) and 10,113 car park lots to its customers as scheduled, a decrease of 16.3% and 3.8% year-on-year respectively, while average selling price increased by 18.2% year-on-year to RMB36,348 per sqm. The total gross revenue from property sales recognised for FY 2022 was RMB64.323 billion, representing a marginal decrease of 1.2% compared to last year, of which, RMB24.501 billion was recognised as the Group’s revenue.

HIGH-QUALITY INVESTMENT PROPERTIES WITH STABLE RECURRING INCOME ARE CRUCIAL FOR THE GROUP’S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The Group’s property investment and hotel operations contributed RMB1.322 billion to its revenue of FY 2022, of which, the income from property investment and hotel operations contributed by the Singapore portfolio saw a year-on-year increase of 11.3%. While income contribution from some of the Group’s investment properties in PRC were affected by the stringent epidemic control measures implemented over the course of 2022, benefiting from the re-opening of Yanlord Riverside Plaza in Tianjin in 2021, the Group was nevertheless able to report a marginal growth of 1.3% in income from property investment and hotel operations. Against a backdrop of downturn in the tourism and retail industries under the epidemic control measures, the performance of the Group’s property investment and hotel operations was satisfactory. Income attributable to property management services, another business segment of the Group, was RMB999 million in FY 2022, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.4%.

In addition, Yanlord has also been invited by local government-linked enterprises to manage and develop residential projects under the “Yanlord” brand name in various cities. In FY 2022, the pre-sales of such property development projects, which the Group will be able to derive project management and branding fees from, reached RMB9.6 billion.

PRUDENT DEVELOPMENT AND STRINGENT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AMIDST MARKET UNCERTAINTIES

In 2022, the PRC real estate market saw weak investments from developers on land acquisitions, resulting in close to a 50% decrease in government land sales both by transacted floor area and value compared to the preceding year. The ongoing debt restructuring efforts by some developers may take some time to resolve, and home buyers have yet to regain confidence. Against such intensely challenging backdrop, Yanlord, leveraging on its strong brand equity, expanded its cooperation with capable enterprises through its “small equity investment and project management” model. On the premise of maintaining a stable financial position and adequate liquidity, the Group took measured steps to replenish its landbank in the Yangtze River Delta region. In addition to the awarded tender for Lentor Central residential site in Singapore, the Group acquired nine additional projects in PRC with a total GFA of approximately 1.53 million sqm in 2022.

Yanlord has been managing its financial and liquidity prudently, backed by healthy pre-sales and good payment collections. As at December 31, 2022, the Group’s total assets increased by 22.4% to RMB189.066 billion compared to that of December 31, 2021; cash and cash equivalents was RMB20.696 billion with net gearing ratio of 54.5%.

OUTLOOK

Towards the end of 2022, the PRC government launched a series of policy adjustments aimed at stimulating housing sales, facilitating corporate financing, with the objective of uplifting the real estate sector out of its current predicament. These policy adjustments came at a time when several years of epidemic control measures were being lifted, and economic development is again a key priority for the country.

There are several key factors to consider when evaluating the future direction of PRC’s economy and the development trend of the real estate industry, of which, the Group believe it can be premised on the following:

First, the PRC remains the second largest economy in the world, which itself has a huge domestic market demand and strength in economic development. Take the performance of Yanlord’s Crowne Plaza Resort Hotel in Haitang Bay, Sanya as an example, in July 2022, where there were no domestic travel restrictions, the hotel recorded the highest single-month income of RMB42 million. In the following months, hotel sales declined significantly due to the impact of the epidemic control measures. But in January 2023, with the strong recovery of tourism after the lifting of epidemic control measures, the hotel operations yet again set a fresh record with monthly income reaching RMB49 million. Such rebound phenomenon has been evident in multiple fields. The Group believes the PRC is poised for its economic recovery momentum.

Second, the PRC’s urbanisation is well underway. Moreover, with the development of industries, the improvement of the public transportation network and the promotion of oldtown redevelopment, the urban areas among these cities are still in the process of further optimisation. The cities that Yanlord invested in are all of economic pertinence, where industrial upgrading attracts population and creates promising housing demand and domestic consumption.

Third, after sustaining this round of market turbulence in the real estate sector, relevant stakeholders will evolve to becoming more mature and resilient, with a new stable market environment conducive for growth of long-term players like Yanlord. It is believed that some well-qualified enterprises can gradually recover with the help of the stimulus policies, and the real estate market will rejuvenate.

Yanlord is a firm long-term player. In a stable and predictable market environment, its competitive advantages will continue to shine.

As at December 31, 2022, the accumulated property contracted pre-sales of the Group together with its joint ventures and associates was RMB101.596 billion on a total GFA of 2.60 million sqm, which are pending recognition in the first half of financial year ending December 31, 2023 and beyond.

Barring any significant deterioration in the global economy and any other unforeseen circumstances, the Board is cautiously optimistic about the Group’s performance for the next reporting period and the next 12 months from the last reporting period based on the number of pre-sale units to-date, construction progress and delivery schedule.

DIVIDEND

In line with the Group’s prudent financial policies, the Board decided to retain the earnings of FY 2022 to cope with future business development and operations needs and is not proposing to declare a dividend for FY 2022. This will serve to further augment the Group’s financial flexibility and enable it to better mitigate any uncertainty posed by the economic environment.

IN APPRECIATION

The management and I would like to express our appreciation to all our customers, business associates, employees and shareholders for their trust and continued support; and to the Directors for their guidance and contribution to steer the Group through yet another challenging year.

Looking ahead, Yanlord will continue to build on its proven business strategies and strive to increase shareholder value through better operational and financial performance.