(Yicai Global) March 30 -- Country Garden Holdings, one of China's largest real estate developers, expects its sales to be slashed by 43 percent in the first quarter due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

Sales could be CNY51 billion (USD7.2 billion) over the three months instead of last year's CNY91 billion, the Foshan-based company said at an online conference on March 27. 
The announcement came at a time when many Chinese real estate corporations report their 2019 results with some such as Longfor Group Holding and Sunac China Holdings suggesting bullish sales targets for this year.

There is still relatively much room for adjustment, said Cheng Guangyu, executive vice president of Country Garden. This year, the company is looking to spend more than CNY160 billion to buy land as it already purchased more in the first quarter than a year ago amid a relatively optimistic investment outlook, Cheng added. 

Although sales got hit by the outbreak in late January, recovery has been better than expected since late February and by March, the situation has basically returned to normal, the executive VP added. 

Last year, Country Garden's net profit rose by 26 percent to CNY61.2 billion from a year earlier as its headcount fell by about 29,600 employees to around 131,400, it added.

It's the survival of the fittest, said President Mo Bin regarding the layoffs. The move was based on the market, performance, and internal management needs, Mo added.

Last year, sales climbed by 10 percent to CNY552.2 billion, meaning that Country Garden was one of the two Chinese property firms to exceed the CNY500 billion mark, joining the club with China Evergrande Group.

However, the firm was taking it slower on new projects. It acquired 398 projects in China last year, cut to half from the previous year. Its newly purchased land reserves also fell by nearly half to 29.1 million square meters, saving CNY29.9 billion. 

Country Garden's stock price [HK: 2007] dropped by 1 percent to HKD9 (USD1.20) by the lunch break.

Editor: Emmi Laine