HONG KONG, March 13 Reuters Top Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings said on Monday it expected to post its first net loss since listing in 2007 due to a sluggish property market and flagged a worsethanfeared drop in core profit.

China39;s top homebuilder by sales was the latest in a growing list of developers that have warned they would report a loss or drop in profit for 2022 after being hit last year by a debt crisis and COVIDlockdowns that delayed or halted homebuilding.

Country Garden said in a filing its estimated net loss would be between 5.5 billion yuan to 7.5 billion yuan 799 million to 1.09 billion, down from a 26.8 billion yuan profit in 2021.

It attributed the big loss to a drop in gross profit margin, a rise in provisions for impairments on property projects, and net foreign exchange losses it expected to report.

The board is of the view that the above factors which affected profit are mainly in noncash nature, said Country Garden, adding its net debt ratio had long remained low and the company maintained a good credit record.

It said core net profit was expected to be in the range of 1 billion yuan to 3 billion yuan, still positive but down sharply from 26.9 billion yuan in 2021 and well below analysts39; forecasts for core profit around 9.3 billion yuan, according to SmartEstimate.

Smaller developer Logan Group Co Ltd 3380.HK also said it expected to record a net loss of 7 billion yuan to 9 billion yuan for 2022.

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