BEIJING - China's top real estate developers reported better profitability last year, the China Securities Journal reported Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, 56 real estate companies listed on the A-share market and Hong Kong securities market had released their 2019 annual reports, and 29 posted an increase in net profits.

Among them, A-share-listed real estate firms registered generally better performance than their Hong Kong-listed counterparts, the paper said.

Average net profits attributable to shareholders of the 38 Hong Kong-listed property developers shrank 27.58 percent to 3.25 billion yuan ($466.3 million), while that of the 18 A-share-listed companies surged 22.67 percent to 3.59 billion yuan.

Most of the companies seeing improved financial results registered expansion in both their assets and debts, the paper said.

However, their asset-liability ratio deducting unearned revenue, which is linked to a property developer's future results, declined on optimized financial accounting, indicating better financial conditions.

The paper said the real estate sector saw more mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2019.

As an effective means of purchasing land and expanding businesses, Chinese property developers made 333 M&A deals worth 296.1 billion yuan last year, up 14.7 percent and 31.6 percent year-on-year, respectively, the paper reported, citing data from property research institution China Index Academy.