(22 February, 2019 – Hong Kong) China Aoyuan Group Limited (“Aoyuan” or the “Company”; Stock Code: 3883) is pleased to announce that the Company’s rating outlook has been upgraded to “positive” from “stable” by Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”), a global leader in credit ratings, and its corporate family rating has been affirmed at “B1”.

According to Moody’s, the upgrade reflects Moody’s expectation that Aoyuan’s credit metrics will improve over the next 12-18 months, driven by strong growth in revenue and contracted sales. Aoyuan recorded 100% year-on-year growth to RMB91.3 billion for the full year 2018, exceeding the company’s annual sales target of RMB73.0 billion. Moody’s also expects that Aoyuan will maintain its financial discipline and control its debt growth while pursuing an expansion strategy in the coming 12-18 months. Moody’s believes that Aoyuan’s growing portfolio, demonstrated abilities in sales execution and solid housing demand in Aoyuan’s core Guangdong market, especially the Greater Bay Area, will allow the company to further grow its contracted sales to RMB110-RMB115 billion in 2019.  The Company has also broadened its geographic coverage, thus reducing its exposure to potential business volatility resulting from adverse changes in individual regional economic and regulatory environments. At the same time, the Company has demonstrated discipline in its land acquisitions and business expansion.

Aoyuan management commented, “Today, Aoyuan is pleased to see the outlook upgrade by Moody’s. In 2018, Aoyuan continued to achieve breakthrough with record-high contracted sales of RMB91.3 billion. Its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2012 to 2018 was over 60%. In 2019, Aoyuan opened the Asia USD bond market and subsequently launched the first fully marketed 3-year PRC property high yield issuance since Q4 2018, successfully issued an aggregate of US$1.0 billion senior notes, further extended its debt maturity profile and optimized its debt structure. In addition to the upgrade to ‘positive’ of Aoyuan’s outlook by Fitch Ratings in August 2018, the upgrade by Moody’s reaffirmed Aoyuan’s comprehensive strength is well recognized by capital markets and the public. Looking forward, Aoyuan will maintain its robust sales growth while maintaining healthy financial profile, thus bringing fruitful returns to our shareholders and investors.”