Connect with us

Business

Evergrande: Why should I care about the crisis-hit Chinese property giant?

Published

on

Evergrande: Why should I care about the crisis-hit Chinese property giant?


Peter Hoskins

Business reporter, BBC News

Getty Images People commute in front of the under-construction Guangzhou Evergrande football stadium in Guangzhou, China's southern Guangdong province on September 17, 2021. The photo shows a male motorcyclist with two passengers, children, seated behind him, as they ride past a large construction site.Getty Images

Before its debt crisis, Evergrande was building a new stadium for its football team, Guangzhou FC

What does Evergrande do?

Evergrande, formerly known as the Hengda Group, was founded by Mr Hui in 1996 in Guangzhou, southern China.

At the time of its collapse, Evergrande had some 1,300 projects under development in 280 cities across China.

The Evergrande Group as a whole encompassed far more than just real estate development.

Its businesses ranged from wealth management to making electric cars. It even owned a controlling stake in the country’s most successful football team, Guangzhou FC.

Mr Hui was once Asia’s richest person with his fortune estimated at $42.5bn (£31.6bn) by Forbes, but his wealth plummeted as Evergrande’s problems deepened.

Why is Evergrande in trouble?

Evergrande expanded aggressively to become one of China’s biggest companies by borrowing more than $300bn.

But in 2020, the Chinese government brought in new rules to control the amount owed by big real estate developers.

The new measures led Evergrande to offer its properties at major discounts to ensure money was coming in to keep the business afloat.

That meant the company struggled to meet the interest payments on its debts.

Since the start of the crisis Evergrande’s shares have lost more than 99% of their value.

In August 2023, the firm filed for bankruptcy in New York, in a bid to protect its US assets as it worked on a multi-billion dollar deal with creditors.

Why do Evergrande’s problems matter?

Evergrande’s problems and the property crisis as a whole have hurt the Chinese economy as the real estate industry accounted for about a third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), an annual measure of all economic activity.

It was not only a significant driver of growth but also a major source of revenue for local governments.

Getty Images Xi Jinping, China's president, arrives for a bilateral meeting in Peru in navy blue suit.  Getty Images

Xi Jinping has pivoted China’s economy towards high-tech manufacturing, ramping up competition with the US

A sharp fall in investment and fund raising activities in real estate have impacted the financial sector, and allied industries like construction, which are a huge source of employment.

At the grassroots level, it has hit ordinary people in China hard as many families put their savings into property.

All of this has helped put pressure on consumer spending, which Beijing sees as crucial to boosting economic growth.

Why didn’t Evergrande get a state bailout?

Through the property crisis the Chinese government has taken a number of measures to help shore up the industry and the economy.

Beijing has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into measures including the country’s central bank providing low-interest loans for state-controlled banks to support struggling real estate projects.

There has also been help for home buyers and incentives to purchase new household appliances.

But it did not roll direct bailouts for the country’s struggling developers, partly to avoid encouraging more risky behaviour.

While the property market was once crucial to China’s economic growth, President Xi Jinping’s focus has changed to competing with US to gain the lead in high-tech manufacturing and AI.

So the ruling Communist Party‘s economic priorities have shifted to areas like renewable energy, electric vehicles, automation and robotics.



Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Business

Dick’s Sporting Goods raises guidance after second-quarter earnings beat

Published

on

Dick’s Sporting Goods raises guidance after second-quarter earnings beat


A Dick’s Sporting Goods store is shown in Oceanside, California, U.S., May 15, 2025.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Dick’s Sporting Goods raised its full-year sales and earnings guidance after delivering fiscal second-quarter results that beat expectations.

The company is now expecting comparable sales to grow between 2% and 3.5%, up from a previous range of 1% and 3% and ahead of analyst estimates of 2.9%, according to StreetAccount. 

Dick’s said its earnings per share are now expected to be between $13.90 and $14.50, up from a previous range of $13.80 to $14.40. Analysts were expecting $14.39 per share, according to LSEG.

Here’s how the company performed compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: $4.38 adjusted vs. $4.32 expected
  • Revenue: $3.65 billion vs. $3.63 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Aug. 2 was $381 million, or $4.71 per share, compared with $362 million, or $4.37 per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items related to its acquisition of Foot Locker and other costs, Dick’s posted earnings per share of $4.38.

Sales rose to $3.65 billion, up about 5% from $3.47 billion a year earlier. During the quarter, comparable sales also grew 5%, well ahead of expectations of 3.2%, according to StreetAccount. 

“Our performance shows how well our long-term strategies are working, the strength and resilience of our operating model and the impact of our team’s consistent execution,” CEO Lauren Hobart said in a news release. “Our Q2 comps increased 5.0%, with growth in average ticket and transactions, and we drove second quarter gross margin expansion.”

While Dick’s comparable sales guidance came in ahead of expectations, its full-year revenue outlook was slightly below estimates. The company said it’s expecting revenue to be between $13.75 billion and $13.95 billion, below estimates of $14 billion, according to LSEG.

Dick’s said its raised profit guidance includes the impact of tariffs that are currently in effect. In an interview with CNBC’s Courtney Reagan, Dick’s executive chairman Ed Stack said the company has implemented some price increases to offset the impact of higher duties but has been “surgical” in its approach.

“We’ve been able to do what we need to from a pricing standpoint, whether that’s from the national brands or from our own brands, and then other places where we’ve held price, we’ve been able to do that, and we’ve offset it someplace else, which is what you have to do in these in these situations, and the team’s done a great job doing that,” Stack said.

Hobart said during Thursday’s call with analysts that the retailer hasn’t seen its shoppers balking at the “small-level” price increases that have gone into effect.

Hobart said broadly Dick’s hasn’t seen any signs of a consumer spending slowdown as a result of tariffs. She said Dick’s saw growth across all of its key segments during the quarter.

Foot Locker tie-up

The company said its guidance doesn’t include any potential impact from its acquisition of Foot Locker, such as costs or results from the planned takeover, which is expected to close on Sept. 8. 

In May, Dick’s announced it would be acquiring its longtime rival for $2.4 billion, giving it a competitive edge in the wholesale sneaker market, most importantly for Nike products, along with a bigger global presence.

Nike is a critical brand partner for both Dick’s and Foot Locker and, at times, their performance is reliant on how well the sneaker brand is doing. During the quarter, Stack said new drops from Nike’s revamped running portfolio, including the Pegasus Premium and the Vomero Plus, are performing so well, it can’t keep the shoes in stock.

“Anything that’s new, innovative and kind of the cool factor, is blowing out,” Stack said.

However, the acquisition also comes with risks. Foot Locker’s business has been in the midst of an ambitious turnaround under CEO Mary Dillon but the company is still struggling.

In the quarter ended Aug. 2, Foot Locker’s sales fell 2.4% and it posted a loss of $38 million. The company faces a range of existential challenges, including its heavy mall footprint, its small online business and a core consumer that often has less discretionary income than the core Dick’s consumer. 

Once the businesses are combined, Foot Locker’s struggles could ultimately weigh on Dick’s overall results. On the other hand, the combined company will become the No. 1 seller of athletic footwear in the U.S., which will allow it to better compete against its next biggest rival, JD Sports. 

Stack acknowledged to CNBC that Foot Locker’s earnings “were not great” but said the company has a strategy.

“We have a game plan of how to turn this around,” Stack told Reagan. “We think that we can return Foot Locker to its rightful place in the top of this industry and we’re excited to roll up our sleeves and get started with that.”

Dick’s plans to operate Foot Locker as a separate entity. Moving forward, Stack said the company plans to break out details on how each brand is performing when releasing quarterly results. It’ll provide separate details on how Dick’s performed and how Foot Locker performed so investors can get a sense of what’s going on in each part of the business.

Hobart said during Thursday’s earnings call that as part of the acquisition, Dick’s plans to invest in Foot Locker stores and marketing. She also said Dick’s sees opportunities in merchandising and bringing in a new assortment of products.

“As Foot Locker becomes part of the Dick’s family, we are an even more important brand to our wholesale partners, and that’s part of the thesis,” Hobart said.

Earlier this week, Dick’s said it had received all regulatory approvals associated with the transaction. It’s unclear if it had to divest any stores to satisfy the FTC’s requirements.

— CNBC’s Ali McCadden contributed to this report.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Ex-WH Smith finance boss delays Greggs board appointment amid accounting probe

Published

on

Ex-WH Smith finance boss delays Greggs board appointment amid accounting probe



Greggs has delayed the appointment of incoming board director Robert Moorhead due to a review into a major accounting error at his previous firm, WH Smith.

The high street bakery chain said Mr Moorhead – the former finance chief at WH Smith – had asked to delay his appointment until a review by Deloitte into the blunder at WH Smith is completed.

He had been due to start at Greggs on October 1 as an independent non-executive director and chair of the audit committee.

Mr Moorhead left WH Smith in 2024 after more than 20 years at the chain.

The delay to his appointment comes after WH Smith saw nearly £600 million wiped off its stock market value last week when it revealed a review of its finances had discovered trading profits in North America had been overstated by about £30 million.

It warned that annual profits would be lower than expected as a result, sending shares down by more than 40% at one stage during the day.

WH Smith said it had found an issue in how it calculated the amount of supplier income it received – leading it to be recognised too early.

It means the group is now expecting a trading profit for the US of about £25 million for the year to August – a cut from the previous £55 million forecast.

As a result, the company lowered its outlook for annual pre-tax profits to around £110 million.

Greggs said Kate Ferry will remain as a non-executive director and will continue as chair of the audit committee in the interim.



Source link

Continue Reading

Business

Electric cars eligible for £3,750 discount announced

Published

on

Electric cars eligible for £3,750 discount announced


Pritti MistryBusiness reporter, BBC News

Ford A bright yellow Ford Puma parked beside a street. A person in a red jacket, black shorts, and white sneakers walks on the pavement in front of a green building with horizontal white slats. The car faces right, and its license plate reads 'HOI108'.Ford

The first electric vehicles (EV) eligible for the £3,750 discount under the government’s grant scheme have been announced.

The Department for Transport confirmed Ford’s Puma Gen-E or e-Tourneo Courier would be discounted as part of plans to encourage drivers to move away from petrol and diesel vehicles.

Under the grant scheme, the discount applies to eligible car models costing up to £37,000, with the most environmentally friendly ones seeing the biggest reductions. Another 26 models have been cleared for discounts of £1,500.

Carmakers can apply for models to be eligible for grants, which are then automatically applied at the point of sale.

More vehicles are expected to be approved in the coming weeks and the DfT said the policy would bring down prices to “closely match their petrol and diesel counterparts”.

The government has pledged to ban the sale of new fully petrol or diesel cars from 2030.

But many drivers cite upfront costs as a key barrier to buying an EV and some have told the BBC that the UK needs more charging points.

According to Ford’s website, the recommended retail price (RRP) for a new Puma Gen-E starts from £29,905 while a petrol equivalent is upward of £26,060. With the reduction applied, buyers would be looking in the region of £26,155 for the EV version.

The grants to lower the cost of EVs will be funded through the £650m scheme, and will be available for three years.

There are around 1.3 million electric cars on Britain’s roads but currently only around 82,000 public charging points.

Full list of EVs eligible for the £1,500 discount

  • Citroën ë-C3 and Citroën ë-C3 Aircross
  • Citroën ë-C4 and Citroën ë-C4 X
  • Citroën ë-C5 Aircross
  • Citroën ë-Berlingo
  • Cupra Born
  • DS DS3
  • DS N°4
  • Nissan Ariya
  • Nissan Micra
  • Peugeot E-208
  • Peugeot E-2008
  • Peugeot E-308
  • Peugeot E-408
  • Peugeot E-Rifter
  • Renault 4
  • Renault 5
  • Renault Alpine A290
  • Renault Megane
  • Renault Scenic
  • Vauxhall Astra Electric
  • Vauxhall Combo Life Electric
  • Vauxhall Corsa Electric
  • Vauxhall Frontera Electric
  • Vauxhall Grandland Electric
  • Vauxhall Mokka Electric
  • Volkswagen ID.3

The up-front cost of EVs is higher on average than for petrol cars.

According to Autotrader, the average price of a new battery electric car was £49,790 in June 2025, based on manufacturers’ recommended prices for 148 models.

The equivalent for a petrol car was £34,225, but the average covers a broad range of prices.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the grant scheme was making it “easier and cheaper for families to make the switch to electric”.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said drivers “frequently tell us that the upfront costs of new EVs are a stumbling block to making the switch to electric”.

“It is great to see some of these more substantial £3,750 discounts coming online because for some drivers this might just bridge the financial gap to make these cars affordable.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending