Having taken up the chairman's role at Country Garden for over 1,000 days, Yang Huiyan has finally steered the leading property developer through its most challenging period amid a deep industry adjustment.
When Yang Huiyan succeeded her father Yang Guoqiang in March 2023, she confronted what was described as "the greatest difficulty since the company's founding." Amid a profound sector-wide correction, Country Garden's sales performance suffered a severe setback. Data from the China Index Academy shows its full-scale sales plummeted from RMB 219.98 billion in 2023 (ranking 7th in the industry) to RMB 60.48 billion in 2024 (ranking 16th) and further to RMB 40.28 billion in 2025 (ranking 19th). Liquidity pressures dimmed the光环 of the "richest woman in China," making "ensuring housing delivery, stabilizing capital and debt, and maintaining operations" her core mission upon taking office.
By the end of 2025, following the comprehensive conclusion of domestic and overseas debt restructuring and a management reshuffle, Yang Huiyan first proclaimed a "second entrepreneurship" declaration at a group monthly management meeting. This signified a shift in Country Garden's operational focus from the critical phase of "ensuring delivery and stabilizing debt" towards the full restoration of normal operational order, and a transition from a large-scale, fast-turnover incremental development model to a new stage emphasizing quality and refined operations.
Debt restructuring was the pivotal battle for resolving the crisis after Yang Huiyan assumed leadership.
In August 2023, Country Garden issued a profit warning, anticipating significant losses for the first half of 2023 due to unfavorable sales and refinancing conditions, alongside acknowledging ongoing liquidity pressures. The group's management apologized via its official WeChat account, stating they had "underestimated the depth, intensity, and duration of the market downturn and failed to implement more forceful measures earlier," pledging to "spare no effort to reverse the current predicament with more powerful and effective measures."
In October of the same year, Country Garden announced it had not paid HKD 470 million in principal due on a certain obligation and expected an inability to meet all offshore debt payment obligations on time or within relevant grace periods, committing to actively promote offshore debt management measures.
After multi-party negotiations with creditors, on January 9, 2025, Country Garden disclosed key terms of its offshore debt restructuring proposal. Subsequently, on December 4, 2025, its approximately $17.7 billion offshore debt restructuring plan received formal approval from the Hong Kong High Court. Just the day before, the restructuring plan for its final batch of onshore bonds also passed a bondholders' meeting, meaning the restructuring plans for all 9 onshore bonds, totaling approximately RMB 13.77 billion, had been approved.
On the final day of 2025 (December 31), Country Garden announced that the effective date for its offshore debt restructuring had been finalized on December 30, marking the official completion of the restructuring.
Reviewing the restructuring timeline, the offshore debt process spanned 329 days from disclosing key terms on January 9, 2025, to announcing the restructuring support agreement on April 11, reaching consensus with representative creditor groups on main terms by August 18, obtaining creditor meeting approval on November 5, and finally receiving court approval on December 4. The onshore debt restructuring was completed in 85 days, from the plan announcement on September 19 to the full approval of all 9 bond restructurings on December 3.
The effects of the restructuring were significant. Country Garden stated via its official WeChat account that, driven by the successful domestic and offshore restructurings, the overall debt reduction was estimated to exceed RMB 90 billion, substantially easing repayment pressure over the next five years. The financing cost for most new debt instruments post-restructuring was significantly reduced to 1%-2.5%, expected to save considerable interest expenses and effectively alleviate cash flow pressure. Furthermore, the completion of restructuring was anticipated to generate substantial restructuring gains, significantly boosting the company's net assets and further solidifying its financial safety cushion.
Country Garden stated that the subsequent implementation of the restructuring plan would advance significant financial deleveraging, achieve a more sustainable capital structure, and allow the company to focus more on operational goals like housing delivery, project development, operation, and asset revitalization. This would aid the company's gradual recovery into a new phase of normal operations, releasing long-term sustainable value.
Following the announcement of new debt restructuring progress on December 4, 2025, Country Garden also announced new management appointments the same day.
President Mo Bin was reassigned as Co-Chairman, responsible for assisting the board in coordinating the group's external strategic relationship building and resource integration, overseeing strategic implementation coordination, and cross-domain major issue coordination. Executive Vice President Cheng Guangyu succeeded as President, primarily responsible for implementing the board's strategic deployments, comprehensively overseeing various business segments, establishing and implementing the operational management system, managing daily operations and administration, and ensuring effective achievement of strategic goals.
Country Garden stated in its announcement that, with the smooth progress of offshore debt restructuring and efforts to normalize operations, establishing a Co-Chairman position would facilitate effective board operation to address business challenges in the new era.
This belated management transition had actually been foreshadowed as early as 2023.
In May 2023, Country Garden held a national regional center heads meeting. Afterwards, an internal document stated: "To deeply implement the group's 'One Body, Two Wings' development strategy and enhance the competitiveness of real estate development, technological construction, and project management/construction agency businesses, Country Garden Holdings adjusted its organizational structure, establishing Country Garden Real Estate Group."
Regarding personnel, Mo Bin served as President of Country Garden Holdings Group and Chairman of the Technology Construction Group; Cheng Guangyu served as Executive Vice President of Country Garden Holdings Group and CEO of Country Garden Real Estate Group; the former Chairman of BoZhil.Robot Company and President of the Guangqing Region, Ding Jie, served as Vice President of Country Garden Holdings Group and President of the Technology Construction Group.
In this organizational reshuffle, Cheng Guangyu's position saw a leapfrog promotion. As an extension of the real estate development industrial chain, project management/construction agency, alongside the core real estate business, came under Cheng Guangyu's comprehensive leadership.
Cheng Guangyu joined Country Garden in 2007 with a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University. From 2012-2014, he was responsible for the overall operational management of regional real estate projects. Since 2014, he has overseen group-wide marketing management, brand management, investment planning management, product design management, operational management, legal supervision, and more.
As a "veteran" who grew with the company, Cheng Guangyu witnessed Country Garden's scale expansion and strategic transformation, becoming one of Yang Huiyan's most trusted executives during his tenure.
On the last day of 2025, December 31, a New Year's message co-signed by Yang Huiyan, Mo Bin, and Cheng Guangyu stated that while challenges remained ahead, the direction was becoming clearer. Country Garden would use the phased achievements of debt restructuring as a starting point, shifting its operational focus steadily from the critical phase of "ensuring housing delivery" towards the continuous optimization of the debt structure and the full restoration of normal operational order.
This also marked Country Garden's formal entry into a new development stage.
At the group's monthly management meeting in November 2024, Yang Huiyan first proposed "second entrepreneurship." She emphasized that the "15th Five-Year Plan" provided a very clear direction for the real estate market, with policy focus shifting from scale development to quality enhancement, concentrating on "good housing" construction and urban renewal. This would present systematic opportunities for Country Garden in areas like quality real estate and smart construction.
Yang Huiyan believed that the "One Body, Two Wings" strategy laid out by Country Garden since 2021 highly aligned with the current policy direction—a full industrial chain business layout centered on real estate development, with technology construction and project management/construction agency as new growth drivers—was expected to gradually release synergistic effects during the industry transformation.
Among these, technological construction has become a driving force for Country Garden's transformation. Its subsidiary Teng Yue Construction Technology, established over 40 years ago, encompasses four major sectors: construction, leasing, home renovation, and robotics, with operations covering 26 provinces and cities in China and overseas markets, having undertaken over 5,000 construction projects cumulatively, with construction robots achieving commercial application.
According to Country Garden's official information, by the end of 2025, the project management/construction agency business, operating through Phoenix Wisdom, had cumulatively undertaken over 200 projects, with a total managed area exceeding 18.68 million square meters, covering more than 20 cities nationwide.
Yang Huiyan stressed that the market had fully entered a buyer's market, necessitating a complete change in operational thinking—shifting from large-scale, fast-turnover incremental development to refined operations. She required all business segments to proactively align with policy directions and genuinely integrate "customer-centricity" into the entire process, from standards and design to materials, construction, operation, maintenance, and service, fully meeting the requirements for "good housing" construction.
In specific practice, this ranged from embedding localization concepts at the product design source, involving property management in community planning to ensure year-round landscape maintenance, pre-planning commercial配套设施 to upgrade resident life services, down to detailed examples like optimizing community water feature layouts, and improving sunlight and vegetation planning for sunken courtyards. Yang Huiyan pointed out, "The future of real estate companies lies in building reputation, especially since real estate is a highly localized industry where residential needs vary by city. We aim to create the products and services that best understand and suit local preferences."
It is noteworthy that the new journey remains challenging for Country Garden. According to Tianyancha, in December 2025 alone, Country Garden Real Estate Group Co., Ltd. added 10 new enforcement subject entries, with combined enforcement targets exceeding RMB 500 million. As of now, Country Garden has 51 existing enforcement subject entries, with a total enforced amount exceeding RMB 6.3 billion, alongside multiple consumption restriction orders, dishonest被执行人 records, cases closed due to inability to execute, and equity freezes.
As the curtain rises on 2026, Country Garden, with significantly eased debt pressure, is advancing with a lighter load. The management team led by Yang Huiyan is guiding this established real estate enterprise to move beyond its scale崇拜, attempting to reshape its core competitiveness under the new model of real estate development. This "second entrepreneurship," anchored in quality and powered by technology, is not only crucial for Country Garden's potential breakthrough and rebirth but also poised to provide a significant sample for the entire industry's transformation.