Family behind Country Garden to reap $50 mn in dividends despite crisis

By Venus Feng
 

China’s former richest woman is still reaping a windfall from her crumbling property empire.
 

Yang Huiyan, the chair of Country Garden Holdings Co., will receive about 160.2 million yuan ($22 million) in dividends from her direct stake in Country Garden Services Holdings Co. A family foundation she transferred more than half of her stake to in July will bag 198.7 million yuan.

Country Garden Services reported an 85 per cent slump in net income for 2023 on Wednesday, missing analyst estimates. Yet the property-management firm still declared a 2.19 yuan cents dividend per share and a special payout of 27.27 yuan cents per share, “a token of appreciation to all shareholders for their continuous support and trust,” the company said in a statement. 

Country Garden, once China’s biggest developer, is among the builders that have been engulfed in the nation’s property crisis, denting Yang’s empire. Its woes entered a new phase in February, when a Hong Kong court received a creditor’s petition to wind up the company. Earlier this month, it missed a coupon payment on a yuan bond for the first time after defaulting on its dollar debt in October. 

The downfall has pushed Yang’s fortune to $4.4 billion from a peak of $34 billion in 2021, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Once the richest woman in her country — and in Asia — she no longer ranks among the 500 wealthiest people in the world. 

Country Garden has already defaulted on $11.9 billion in debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Still, Yang has given “strong support” to Country Garden since its listing in 2007, the firm said in a Hong Kong exchange filing in August. Together with family members, she provided about HK$38.6 billion ($4.9 billion) through measures including loans and the acquisition of shares and bonds, the document noted at the time, without specifying further details.