What’s new: Four members of Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd.’s leadership have voluntarily taken significant pay cuts, the company announced Tuesday.
Effective since Nov. 1, the annual salary of Chairman Yang Huiyan, daughter of Country Garden founder Yang Guoqiang and one of China’s richest women, was slashed from 370,000 yuan ($52,000) to 120,000 yuan, according to a notice filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
President and Executive Director Mo Bin took a 96% pay cut from 3 million yuan a year to 120,000 yuan, the notice said. Another executive director and one non-executive director also took big cuts to their paychecks.
The decision was made after “taking into account the industry and the actual business needs of the company,” the notice said.
Shares of the developer rose 1.27% in Hong Kong Wednesday morning.
The background: Country Garden, once China’s No. 1 developer by sales, reported its first ever default on a dollar bond in October.
Yang said at a monthly management meeting on Friday that she is “very confident” the company can repair its balance sheet and pledged the founding family’s support for the developer.
As China’s property sector continues to struggle, authorities across the country have stepped up policy support since the summer, including introducing measures to help developers get financing and encourage homebuying.
In the first 10 months of this year, property sales by floor area dropped 7.8% from the same period of 2022, while housing sales declined 6.8%, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
Related: Country Garden Very Confident of Repairing Balance Sheet, Says Chair
Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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