China Evergrande H1 core profit doubles as more properties delivered

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China Evergrande Group, the country's second-largest property developer by sales, said on Tuesday its first-half core profit more than doubled to a record high, boosted by more properties delivered and helped by lower expenses.

Core profit, which excludes revaluation gains and non-recurring items, was 55.01 billion yuan ($8.00 billion) for the January-to-June period, the highest in the industry.

Net profit jumped 63.6 percent to 30.81 billion yuan, while revenue increased 59.8 percent to 300.35 billion yuan. Total borrowings amounted to 671.13 billion yuan, down more than 8 percent from the end of December.

Evergrande had flagged earlier this month that it expected half-year core profit to more than double from a year earlier and net gearing ratio to drop to below 130 percent at the end of June from 184 percent at the end of last year.

($1 = 6.8740 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing)