Gemdale Group executives take a 72% pay cut

(Source: Real Estate Whale)

The executive compensation of Jindi Group dropped sharply from RMB 70.78 million in 2020 to RMB 19.61 million in 2025, a decline of as much as 72.29%.

1. Specific changes in executive compensation data

A sharp drop in total compensation:

• 2020: The total executive compensation was RMB 70.78 million, at a relatively high level in the industry.

• 2025: According to the latest annual report, directors and senior management received total compensation of RMB 18.61 million, with an average compensation of RMB 1.3293 million.

• Decline calculation: Actual decrease of RMB 51.17 million, a decline of 72.29%, far exceeding the industry average.

Core executive compensation breakdown (2025):

• Chairman Xu Jiajun: Pre-tax compensation of RMB 1.99 million

• President and CFO Li Ronghui: RMB 1.93 million

• Senior Vice President Chen Aihong: RMB 1.81 million

• Other senior vice presidents (Wei Chuanjun, Chen Changchun, Hao Yibin, Wang Nan): all RMB 1.69 million

• Board Secretary Hu Xuwen: RMB 1.33 million

Compensation trend:

• 2023 total compensation: RMB 37.01 million

• 2024 total compensation: RMB 23.09 million

• 2025 total compensation: RMB 18.61 million

• Showing a continuous three-year downward trend; compared with 2023, 2025 has already decreased by 49.7%.

2. Severe deterioration in the company’s operating performance

Revenue cut in half:

• 2025 operating revenue was RMB 35.86B, down significantly by 52.41% year over year.

• Real estate development revenue was RMB 23.89B, down 60.20% year over year.

• Property management revenue was RMB 8.06B, slightly up 3.23% year over year, becoming one of the few bright spots.

Large losses扩大:

• Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company in 2025 was -RMB 13.28B.

• The loss amount further expanded by 117% compared with -RMB 6.12B in 2024.

• Basic earnings per share were -RMB 2.94, and the board of directors decided not to distribute profits for the current year.

Sales shrink substantially:

• Cumulative contract value for the full year 2025 was RMB 30.02 billion, down 56.18% year over year.

• As of the end of the reporting period, the company’s total land reserves were about 24.72 million square meters, equity land reserves were about 10.59 million square meters, and the proportion of first- and second-tier cities was about 79%.

Large-scale impairment provisions:

• In 2025, total credit impairment losses and asset impairment losses provided exceeded RMB 9 billion.

• Of which, credit impairment losses were as high as RMB 5.95B, and asset impairment losses were about RMB 3.11B.

• The company conducted impairment tests on various types of assets and accrued RMB 7.03B for asset impairment provisions, including RMB 4.51B for credit loss provisions and RMB 2.5B for inventory price-decline provisions.

Gross margin drops sharply:

• The gross margin from real estate business settlements fell to 7.93%, down 6.18 percentage points from the same period last year.

• This reflects the predicament that the industry’s overall profit space has been severely compressed.

3. Deep adjustment of the organizational structure

Management model transformation:

• In July 2025, Jindi Group carried out a large-scale organizational restructuring. It would compress the long-used “three-level management model of headquarters–region–city companies” into a “2.5-level management model of headquarters–big regions–regional companies.”

• The company abolished the original five regional companies and newly established four big regional companies: South China, North China, East China, and Central and Western regions.

Repositioning of functions:

• Headquarters: As the business decision-making center, responsible for decisions on key business matters and directly manages regional companies.

• Big region companies: As business supervision and guidance centers, with core functions of supervising the production and operations of regional companies and handling key and difficult special projects.

• Regional companies: As frontline operating entities, responsible for production and operating management within their jurisdictions.

Major personnel changes:

• Du Hong, former chairman of the South China region, was transferred to East China to serve as general manager of the big region and general manager of the Shanghai regional company.

• Yu Xiufeng, former general manager of the Beijing company, was appointed general manager of the Central China regional company.

• Ji Bing, former general manager of the Shanghai company, was appointed general manager of the Nanjing regional company.

• After founder Ling Ke stepped down as chairman in October 2023, he fully left the Jindi Group system in June 2025.

Results of cost reduction and efficiency improvement:

• In the first half of 2025, selling expenses were RMB 524.5 million, down 24.23% year over year.

• Administrative expenses were RMB 1.08B, down 17.95% year over year.

4. Deep adjustment of the overall industry environment

General pay cuts in the real estate sector:

• Vanke: Executive compensation fell from RMB 112.21 million in 2013 to RMB 9.42 million in 2025, a decline of as much as 92%.

• China Merchants Shekou: In 2024, total remuneration for directors, supervisors, and senior management decreased by half year over year. Chairman Jiang Tiefeng’s annual salary fell from RMB 4.9169 million to RMB 2.4177 million.

• Country Garden: President Mo Bin’s annual salary fell from RMB 192 million to RMB 120k.

• Greenland Holdings: In 2025, the salary structure for senior management was streamlined from Level 11 to Level 9; compensation standards for each position level were lowered by 25%–30%.

Industry operating difficulties:

• Most real estate developers face challenges of falling sales and profit losses.

• The down-cycle in the market leads to project selling prices coming in below expectations, increasing the risk of collecting receivables.

• Under dual pressures of “ensuring delivery of completed homes” and debt repayment, real estate developers’ cash flows are generally tight.

5. Analysis of multiple drivers behind executive pay cuts

6. The natural outcome of performance-linked mechanisms

• In its annual report, Jindi Group clearly stated: “Executive compensation is linked to the company’s performance. In the case of the company’s losses, the compensation levels also reflect a certain degree of reasonableness.”

• After the operating turnaround from “profit milk cow” to “loss black hole,” it can no longer support the high executive compensation of the past.

2. Strategic choice to prioritize cash flow safety

• The company will ensure cash flow safety as the top priority, and in 2024 it repaid about RMB 20 billion of publicly due debts.

• Cutting all non-essential spending, with executives taking the lead in accepting pay cuts, has become an inevitable choice for the company to survive.

3. Supporting measures for organizational restructuring

• A flattened management model needs to be matched with a compensation system.

• Against the backdrop of large-scale layoffs, executives’ pay cuts reflect “taking responsibility and commitment.”

4. Pressure from regulation and public opinion

• Regulators emphasize that “loss-making companies must not do sky-high compensation,” and promote a lifelong binding of executive compensation with risk.

• While the company suffered losses exceeding RMB 120k, executives previously received high pay during the industry’s peak period, triggering strong public questions about the equivalence of “powers, responsibilities, and benefits.”

5. An inevitable trend during the industry’s transition

• The real estate industry has moved from the new stage of “high growth, high leverage, high compensation” to “low growth, high risk, low compensation with accountability traced.”

• Executive pay cuts have become a common phenomenon during the industry’s deep adjustment period.

6. Future outlook and implications

Optimization of financial structure:

• As of the end of 2025, the company’s interest-bearing liabilities balance was RMB 67 billion, of which 98.6% was bank borrowings.

• The average financing cost was 3.92%, down 13 percentage points compared with the end of 2024.

• The asset-liability ratio was 64.25%, and the net debt ratio was 65.21%, further improving the liability structure.

Diversified business development:

• The share of non-residential business income has continued to rise steadily, and diversified development such as construction management shows resilience.

• The property management business continues to grow and has become a stable source of cash flow.

Industry implications:

• Jindi Group’s case reflects a historic turning point in China’s real estate industry—from the golden era to a period of deep adjustment.

• The dramatic change in executive compensation quantifies the ups and downs of a leading company amid the tide of the times.

• Going forward, real estate developers need to place more emphasis on financial soundness, diversified businesses, and optimization of governance structures.

Summary

The sharp 72.29% decline in Jindi Group executives’ compensation is the result of multiple factors working together, including a severe deterioration in the company’s operating performance, deep adjustment of the industry environment, a reshuffling of organizational structure through reform, and increased pressure from regulation and public opinion. This change not only reflects Jindi Group’s own survival-strategy adjustment, but also mirrors a historic shift in the entire real estate industry from rapid expansion to difficult survival. During the industry winter, executive pay cuts, organizational flattening, and business focus have become common choices for real estate developers. Jindi Group’s case provides profound reference value for industry transformation.

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