Annual Report In-Depth | Greentown China’s "Green Answer": Product Strength Leading Industry Benchmark, ESG Rating Soars to AA Level

Recently, MSCI, a globally authoritative rating agency, released its latest ESG rating results. Greentown China was upgraded from BBB to AA. This rating not only places it within the highest rating band among domestic real estate developers, but also means that only a very small number of domestic companies have reached this level, with many others in the mid-range or at even lower standards. Meanwhile, in the “2025 Real Estate Company ESG Assessment Research Report,” Greentown China also received an AA rating, becoming one of the four top-rated real estate developers, moving up further from the A rating in 2024.

For companies that adhere to long-termism, ESG is no longer a secondary issue—it is a core dimension embedded in the decision-making framework. It is not only about investment returns and corporate interests, but also represents a commitment to responsibility toward society, the environment, and future generations. Earning recognition from an internationally authoritative rating agency means that Greentown China has more room to negotiate on the financing side and a cost advantage, while also injecting confidence into the market during industry adjustment cycles.

Why do rating agencies continue to look favorably on Greentown China? The answer is found in the just-released 2025 financial report. During a period of deep industry adjustments, the company’s industry positioning did not decline—instead, it improved. Its sales rankings in multiple core cities remain among the top, and project inventory reduction has been implemented efficiently, while its product strength has earned national-level design awards. Core operating and financial indicators have all released strong anti-cyclical signals. Even more noteworthy is that the company has not limited its vision to its business itself; through public welfare practices of “planting trees, helping farmers, and teaching,” it has extended the meaning of sustainable development from within the company to the dimensions of society and the environment.

Financial Foundations, Steady and Far-Reaching

Prudent operations are the inevitable choice for a company to achieve sustainable development.

During the industry adjustment cycle, Greentown China did not expand blindly; instead, it made financial security the stabilizing “keystone” for steady progress toward the long term. By the end of 2025, the company’s total borrowing balance decreased from RMB 137.2 billion at the end of the previous year to RMB 133.4 billion, a reduction of about 2.8%. Even more importantly, the cash-to-short-debt ratio was 2.6, the highest level in company history. Borrowings due within one year were controlled at 18.6%, further down from 2024. The proportion of long-term debt correspondingly increased to 81.4%. The matching ratio of short- and long-term debt became more reasonable, effectively avoiding the risk of short-term funding chain pressure.

The continuous optimization of the debt structure has created room for the downward movement of financing costs. According to the financial report, in 2025, the company’s weighted average financing cost for total borrowings fell to 3.3%, down sharply by 60 basis points from 3.9% in 2024, and is already at a low level within the industry. This means that, against the backdrop of generally tight industry liquidity, Greentown China not only held the bottom line of financial safety, but also built a deep safety buffer against cyclical fluctuations with lower funding costs.

It is precisely because a solid foundation has been laid on the financial side that Greentown China can act with confidence on the operating side, directing resources precisely to the core battlefields. In 2025, Greentown China achieved a total contracted sales area of approximately 12.08 million square meters and a total contracted sales amount of approximately RMB 251.9 billion. Its industry ranking rose by one position, reaching second nationwide. Among them, the self-invested sales amount was approximately RMB 153.4 billion, and the equity sales amount was approximately RMB 104.3 billion. Both rankings rose to the fifth position in the industry, and the collection rate was at a high level of 101%.

Against the backdrop of overall industry pressure, this record of advancing despite headwinds is both a positive validation of the company’s financial strategy and a reflection of its capability to continuously expand market share in core cities.

In 2025, Greentown China continued to increase its investments and layout in the Yangtze River Delta region. It added 50 new projects during the year, with a total planned construction area of 3.18 million square meters, and expected newly added value of RMB 135.5 billion. Of this, the Yangtze River Delta accounted for 81% of the total value, and Hangzhou alone contributed 38% of the value share, demonstrating the company’s determination to deepen its presence in core cities. By the end of 2025, Greentown China had a total land reserve project count of 146 (including projects under construction and awaiting construction), with a total saleable area of approximately 15.67 million square meters and an attributable saleable area of approximately 9.72 million square meters. After the proportion of investment in high-tier cities slightly declined to 76% in 2024, it rebounded again to around 80% by the end of 2025, further concentrating the investment focus on high-quality cities.

At the performance meeting, management stated that it is precisely this “financial resilience—operational composure—investment focus” transmission chain that supports Greentown China’s efficient operations at the project fulfillment end. From land acquisition to project launching, and then to inventory reduction, the company has formed a positive closed loop of “getting the bets right, building quickly, and selling smoothly,” ensuring that newly added value can be quickly converted into sales performance—thereby building momentum for the next stage of scale growth.

Green Gene, Craftsmanship in Quality

For a long time, Greentown China has embedded the concept of sustainable development into its corporate strategy, forming a systemic integration with business development. As early as August 2021, the company established, at the board level, an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee, and set up an ESG working group beneath it. This established a three-tier management structure of “decision-making—management—execution,” ensuring effective transmission of ESG policies from top-level design to on-the-ground implementation.

This top-down framework clearly defined responsibilities. At the board level, the ESG Committee is responsible for formulating strategy, overseeing risks and opportunities, reviewing annual reports, and ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s “Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting Guidance.” At the execution level, it implements initiatives such as organizational change, operational optimization, and strengthening the risk control system. During the year, the company conducted more than 100 risk control and compliance trainings and 75 anti-corruption trainings, and also established a risk management database to support healthy development. A series of governance initiatives have earned Greentown China MSCI AA-level and Wind AA-level ratings, with its ESG management level already reaching an industry benchmark.

The improvement of the governance framework ultimately translates into specific green actions. Under the “dual carbon” goals, Greentown China established “green” and “healthy” as the strategic main lines for long-term development, working to promote the sustainable development of green buildings and the ecological environment. The company has continued to improve the quality of green building construction, exploring and adopting innovative green construction methods to achieve its product strategic vision.

By the end of 2025, Greentown China had cumulatively built 364 green building projects, and the newly added area with green building certifications during the year was approximately 2.46 million square meters. Among projects under construction, the proportion of projects applying prefabricated construction technology reached 85%, up 5 percentage points year over year, continuing to support the industry’s transition to green and low-carbon development.

The implementation of green concepts did not come at the expense of operational efficiency. Instead, Greentown China demonstrates strong execution ability at the project fulfillment end: from land acquisition to the opening of model/showcase areas, the average time is 5.4 months; from first sales to launch, the average is 6.1 months; and from launch to delivery, the average is 26.2 months. Throughout the year, the self-invested and entrusted-construction segments completed delivery on schedule for 210 projects, delivering about 119k households and about 22.69 million square meters. Delivery satisfaction reached 94 points, further improving compared with 2024.

With this combination of “green leadership, efficiency support, and quality backup,” Greentown China has embedded its green gene from the strategic level into every project, finding a path to break through in a homogenized competitive environment.

As management said, “good homes” from Greentown are becoming a bright landscape in the city.

Behind this is Greentown China’s continuously strengthened product strength. It has won the industry’s grand slam honors for four consecutive years. Throughout the year, it received over a hundred domestic and international design awards. Multiple benchmark projects won national top design awards, and the company’s hard product strength has earned widespread market recognition.

The Chaoming Dongfang project located on the north bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai is a typical example of Greentown’s “good homes.” The project centers on a panoramic hall design, achieving a larger window-to-wall ratio and a more open view of the landscape. Structurally, by reducing shear walls, it creates possibilities for flexible combinations of spaces beyond the dehumidification areas. At the same time, the introduction of the “life curation” concept brings art into everyday life through collaboration with international art masters. These design innovations enabled Chaoming Dongfang to win the 2025 London Design Awards—Residential Architecture—Gold Award.

Greentown China’s executive president Zhou Changjiang summarized Greentown’s unique path to building “good homes” with “one strategy, one product gene, one innovative system, and one capability-building system.” He said the company has formulated a product strategy for 2030, stays true to the “people-oriented product” gene, and ensures inheritance and innovation through a product basic law. In specific practice, Greentown employs a dual-wheel drive of customer and professional teams. On one hand, it focuses on six value dimensions: appearance/finishes, health, safety, smart features, art, and customization, ensuring that cost investment is converted precisely into experiences customers can perceive. On the other hand, relying on the “good homes” standards, in 2025 it has formed core rules under which 90% of terms are stricter than national standards, achieving continuous leadership. Building on this, through refined operations and digital marketing, the company converts product advantages into profitability, constructing a value closed loop from product leadership to financial resilience—making product strength the core engine for sustainable development.

Public Welfare as a Bridge, Giving Back to Society

Twelve years is enough for a haloxylon seedling to take deep root in the desert, and enough for a company’s public welfare philosophy to grow from its early stage into a system. Guided by Greentown China’s two flagship brand initiatives, “Plant Spring Breeze” and “Kick the Ball Away,” the company upgraded its charitable giving from scattered good deeds into a fixed module of a sustainable development strategy. It has formed a replicable model of public welfare across areas such as ecological protection, helping students and farmers, and community care.

The financial report shows that “Kick the Ball Away” has cumulatively attracted 1,200 teams and 18,000 players to participate. “Plant Spring Breeze” has cumulatively planted more than 160k haloxylon trees and has greened more than 2,400 mu of the Minqin desert. The two brands have been deeply integrated and extended into educational public welfare, forming a diversified public welfare ecosystem of “sand control + enrichment of farmers + nurturing people.”

Minqin is located in the gap area between two major deserts, Badain Jaran Desert and Tengger Desert, and has long faced severe challenges of desertification. In 2015, Greentown planted the first haloxylon seedling here, starting its sand-control journey. Five years later, this initiative was officially named “Plant Spring Breeze.” That same year, the company launched “Spring Breeze Charity Sales” of Minqin’s agricultural specialty products, helping local agricultural products such as cantaloupes and goji berries reach across the country, driving farmers’ income growth through ecological improvement. In 2025, “Greentown Forest” has become the largest corporate tree-planting public welfare forest in Minqin. “Plant Spring Breeze” was recognized as an excellent public welfare case of “China Real Estate Annual Brand Public Welfare.”

Not only that, Greentown China continues to expand the boundaries of its public welfare efforts. In 2025, “Plant Spring Breeze” and “Kick the Ball Away” joined forces for the first time to enter schools in Minqin to support students. This year, Greentown Commercial launched a “Greentown Forest” tree donation initiative, with the funds directly allocated to the QingSuo public welfare efforts in Gansu; and leveraging three business formats—commercial properties, hotels, and apartments—it promotes green public welfare through full-area coordination and broad public participation. In addition, the company continues to give back to society in areas such as affordable housing, urban renewal, education and healthcare, and elderly care and environmental protection.

From the initial single tree-planting activity, to later charity sales supporting farmers, and now simultaneous advancement of tree planting, helping farmers, and teaching—“Plant Spring Breeze” has gone through twelve years, becoming a snapshot of how Greentown practices its ESG strategy. In Greentown China’s view, ESG is by no means a prop for show; it is the foundation rooted deep in the development logic, and also the only path toward a sustainable future. From urban business districts to the deep deserts, this twelve-year green relay will continue to be passed on.

A company’s path to development is reflected not only in meticulous refinement of customer value, but also in its unwavering practice of social responsibility. Liu Chengyun, chairman of the board, stated that Greentown will continue to uphold product-ism and long-termism, focusing on quality as the foundation, using innovation to drive progress, and placing emphasis on management. Under the premise of ensuring financial security, it will continuously optimize products and services and enhance core competitiveness.