Evergreen Products Group 2018 Interim Adjusted Net Profit Surges 32.1% to HK$54.7 million; Interim Dividend of HK4.2 cents per share; Payout Ratio of 49.9%

August 29, 2018, 2:03 am

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Strong Ties with Clients and Solid Market Demand Drive Growth
Bangladesh Facilities Continue to Enjoy Economies of Scale

HONG KONG, Aug 29, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Evergreen Products Group Limited ("Evergreen" or the "Group"; HKEX stock code: 1962), a leading global manufacturer of hair goods, has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018 (the "Period"), reporting significant revenue growth of 22.1% to HK$373.3 million, driven by long-standing ties with its existing clients and strong overall market demand for Evergreen's wigs and hair products.

During the Period, the Group continued to enjoy low labor costs at the Bangladesh Factory, which contributed positively to the overall improvement of its gross profit. Subsequently, gross profit increased by 23.9% to HK$131.7 million, while gross profit margin reached 35.3% (1H 2017: 34.8%). Net profit for the Period increased by 10.7% to HK$51.7 million. If excluding the value of the charge for employee services of newly granted share award of HK$3.0 million and the listing expenses of HK$11.5 million, along with the change in fair value of redeemable convertible preferred shares of HK$16.8 million recognised for both periods, the Group's adjusted net profit for the period would have amounted to HK$54.7 million, or an upsurge of 32.1%. Basic earnings per share was HK$9 cents. The Board has recommended the payment of an interim dividend of HK4.2 cents per share for the Period (1H 2017: Nil) with dividend ratio of 49.9%.

Mr. Felix Chang, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Evergreen, said, "During the Period, the Group continued to strengthen ties with existing clients. At the same time, our production facilities in Bangladesh achieved greater economies of scale; serving as the main revenue source of the Group and contributing significantly to our profitability. By leveraging our production capabilities, including our production base in Bangladesh with its large pool of low cost labor, we trust that the Group will continue to sustain growth in the long run."

Business Review
Evergreen boasts a comprehensive product portfolio that includes wigs, hair accessories and others, high-end human hair extensions, and Halloween products, which target different ethnic groups and the Halloween market. The United States continued to be the Group's principal market and accounted for 82.7% of its total revenue during the Period.

The Group has three production centres in China and two production centres in Bangladesh as at 30 June 2018. The production centres in China occupy a total gross floor area ("GFA") of 54,091 square metres, and the production centres in Bangladesh occupy a total GFA of 109,944 square metres. The production facilities in Bangladesh, which houses Evergreen's principal manufacturing capacity, contributed significantly to the Group's profitability, thus substantiating the effectiveness of the Group's strategic factory deployment plan. In January 2018, construction of the GT Hand Tie Facility in Bangladesh, dedicated to producing hand tied extensions, was completed and commenced production. The facility will cater for the growing demand for the Group's products.

Wigs, hair accessories and others continued to be the Group's key revenue contributor, with revenue surging 32.0% to HK$272.0 million, mainly due to an increase in sales of high-margin products such as lace wigs, and a significant increase in sales of own branded products sold directly to end-users through e-commerce. Gross profit and gross profit margin of the segment was up by 38.6% and 1.6 percentage points to HK$86.9 million and 32.0% respectively.

Revenue from high-end human hair extensions increased by 6.8% to HK$75.8 million, owing to higher sales volume facilitated by enlarged production at the Bangladesh factory. As a result of the increase in sales of the Group's own branded products that have higher profit margin, gross profit and gross profit margin were up by 14.1% and 3.2 percentage points to HK$38.0 million and 50.1% respectively. Revenue from Halloween products slightly decreased to HK$25.5 million mainly due to early delivery of finished goods for the corresponding period in 2017 when compared to the Period. Gross profit and gross profit margin were HK$6.8 million (1H 2017: HK$10.3 million) and 26.7% (1H 2017: 35.9%) respectively, reflecting the additional costs incurred from setting up an additional Halloween product design unit at the Bangladesh production base.

Business Outlook
Looking ahead, the Group will continue to expand its product portfolio and improve its production efficiency by further consolidating raw materials processing and the hair goods production operations in Bangladesh to maintain its profitability.

In addition, to meet the anticipated increase in demand for its products and to capture business opportunities brought by the growing hair goods industry, the Group will further expand its production capacity and the scope of its operations in Bangladesh to include human hair sourcing, bleaching and dyeing, printing and cartoning. Following the completion of the GT Hand Tie Facility, the Group plans to proceed with completing construction of the remaining three production facilities in Bangladesh by the end of 2019. The Bleaching and Dyeing Complex is already close to completion and trial run has begun, following which formal operation will start. In addition, the Group completed construction of the UEPZ Printing Facility early this year and trial run has begun after which formal operation will start. As at 30 June 2018, GFA of 35,077 square metres had been built for the Bleaching and Dyeing Complex and GFA of 10,145 square metres had been built for the UEPZ Printing Facility, representing a total GFA of 45,222 square metres. Construction of the new cartoning facility is expected to commence around the end of 2018.

Mr. Chang concluded, "Evergreen will continue to strength ties with its customers and offer a greater variety of products, with the ultimate goal of seizing greater market share. Also, by continuing to expand product capacity and engage in product development, we will be ready to capture new opportunities ahead. We will fully utilize our new facilities in Bangladesh and strengthen our core competencies, in order to achieve long-term sustainable growth and secure lucrative returns for our shareholders."

About Evergreen Products Group Limited
Evergreen is a leading global manufacturer of hair goods, including wigs, hairpieces, braids and high-end human hair extensions. Since 1962 when its founder commenced trading of wig products, Evergreen has kept growing and ranked fifth in synthetic hair goods sales globally with an approximately 4.0% share of the global synthetic hair goods market by revenue in 2016. It operates on a comprehensive business model covering various aspects of the hair goods business, from initial design, research and development to final delivery. With two production centres in Bangladesh and three productions centres in China, the Group benefits from its low labour costs and large labour pools, thus it enjoys economies of scale. For more details about Evergreen, please visit the Group's website: www.epfhk.com

For media enquiries, please contact:
Strategic Financial Relations Limited
Veron Ng Tel: (852) 2864 4831 Email: veron.ng@sprg.com.hk
Angela Wong Tel: (852) 2114 4953 Email: angela.wong@sprg.com.hk
Corinne Ho Tel: (852) 2114 4911 Email: corinne.ho@sprg.com.hk
Website: www.sprg.com.hk

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Tonghai Financial Announces 2018 Interim Results

August 29, 2018, 2:31 am

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The first interim results after the Group expanded the core capital with profit and revenue growth
After tax profit of approximately HK$30.76 million, representing an increase of 43% period-on-period

HONG KONG, Aug 29, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - China Tonghai International Financial Limited ("Tonghai Financial" or the "Group", Stock Code: 952.HK), is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018.

Snapshots (For six months ended 30 June 2018)

- The Group recorded an after-tax profit of approximately HK$30.76 million (interim period in 2017: HK$21.45 million), representing an increase of 43%.

- The Group's revenue increased by 20% to HK$268 million for the Interim Period (interim period in 2017: HK$224 million).

- Income from brokerage business increased steadily and recorded approximately HK$118 million in the Interim Period, as compared to HK$113 million in the interim period last year, representing an increase of 4%.

- Revenue from the interest income business for the Interim Period amounted to approximately HK$172 million, representing an increase of approximately 3.5 times as compared to HK$38 million for the interim period last year.

The Group recorded an after-tax profit of approximately HK$30.76 million (interim period in 2017: HK$21.45 million), representing an increase of 43%. The Group's revenue increased by 20% to HK$268 million for the Interim Period (interim period in 2017: HK$224 million). Excluding investment loss of HK$71.24 million (interim period in 2017: HK$19.97 million of investment income), revenue from other businesses amounted to HK$339 million, representing an increase of 66% as compared to the HK$204 million on the same basis in the interim period in 2017. This investment loss was mainly due to fair value change of securities investment. The Group changed the financial year end date to 31 December 2017, whereas the comparative figures for interim period last year was based on 1 April to 30 September 2017.

Financial Review
Brokerage Business
During the Interim Period, income from brokerage business recorded approximately HK$118 million, which represents an increase of 4% from HK$113 million in the interim period last year. Commission on dealings in Hong Kong securities recorded around HK$38.04 million in the Interim Period, which represents an increase of around 4% from HK$36.44 million in the interim period last year. The increase was mainly due to the significant increase in average daily turnover of the overall market. During the Interim Period, commission on dealings in futures and options recorded around HK$67.65 million, which represents an increase of around 3% from HK$65.39 million in the interim period last year. The increase was mainly due to a rise in the number of contracts conducted by our clients.

Interest Income Business
Revenue from the interest income business for the Interim Period amounted to approximately HK$172 million, representing an increase of approximately 3.5 times as compared to HK$38 million for the interim period last year. Interest income from loans to margin clients recorded around HK$75.74 million, which represents an increase of approximately 163% from HK$28.85 million for the interim period last year. The increase was mainly due to the significant increase in average loan balance in the Interim Period as compared to the figures in the interim period last year. The Group had about HK$2.25 billion of the margin loans outstanding balance (settlement date basis) as at the end of June 2018 while the margin loans outstanding balance (settlement date basis) was approximately HK$903 million as at 30 September 2017. During the Interim Period, interest income from structured loan significantly increased to HK$61.68 million. Interest income from banks and others also significantly increased to HK$28.56 million for the Interim Period from HK$3.11 million for the interim period last year, representing an increase of approximately 8 times.

Corporate Finance Business
Total income from corporate finance business recorded around HK$29.47 million for the Interim Period, which represents a decrease of around 22% from around HK$37.99 million in the interim period last year, primarily due to a significant decrease in fee income as the number of projects with larger contracted amount completed in the Interim Period is less than that in the interim period last year. During the Interim Period, commission income (from placing, underwriting and sub-underwriting deals) recorded around HK$7.6 million, which represents a significant increase from around HK$0.15 million as compared to the interim period last year. During the Interim Period, a total of 18 mandates (the interim period last year: 12) were signed, of which 8 were placing, underwriting and sub-underwriting mandates, 2 were sponsorship mandates, 8 were financial advisory/independent financial advisory and other mandates.

Asset Management Business
Total income from asset management business recorded around HK$12.87 million for the Interim Period, which represents an increase of 33% from around HK$9.68 million in the interim period last year. The increase was mainly attributable to the significant increase in the average AUM of Oceanwide Greater China UCITS fund ("Oceanwide UCITS fund"). Our asset management business currently includes the management of Oceanwide UCITS fund, Oceanwide China Focus fund, a private fund registered in Cayman Islands, Oceanwide Pioneer Limited Partnership, Oceanwide Kilmorey Guaranteed Return Fund and various discretionary accounts and so on.

Investments and Others Businesses
Loss from investments and others businesses recorded around HK$63.86 million for the Interim Period, while a gain of around HK$26.29 million was recorded in the interim period last year. The investment loss was mainly generated by fair value change of a single stock. Financial media service fee income recorded around HK$7.39 million, representing a rise of 17% from around HK$6.32 million in the interim period last year.

Prospects
The year of 2018 marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Group. As Oceanwide Holdings completed the acquisition of Quam, we have seen the initial completion of the following by the end of last year, including but not limited to the change of our Company's name, the change of members of the Board, the new members of the senior management of the Company on board, the expansion of our capital and the establishment of new business lines. This year represented the first entire financial year during which the Group operated its business with the existing capital. Looking ahead, we will devote our efforts to the following directions in the hope of bringing better returns to the Company and all of our shareholders:

1. Carrying forward the structural transformation of revenue. The Group will take advantage of capital and adopt capital-based intermediary approach. We aim to substantially increase the proportion of revenue from structured financing, corporate financing, asset management and investment and others businesses while improving the absolute amount of income derived from traditional brokerage and interest income business, so as to reduce our reliance on the latter. We will also grasp the opportunity to enter into merger & acquisition in order to bring in growth other than organic growth as well as establish possible regional presences when it arises.

2. Improving quality of income. We will increase the Group's loans to third parties to reduce the proportion of loans to connected persons. We will assess and improve the loan quality of current margin clients to minimize loan risks and increase growth rate of commission income. The Group will continue to recruit and retain capable account executives to increase our market share in the secondary market and the income of securities brokerage business.

3. Enhancing leverage moderately. An appropriate level of leverage is healthy. We will increase our borrowings to optimize equity return. We will keep an eye on the market conditions and appropriately enhance the Group's leverage ratio to an extent comparable to that of those leading players.

4. Improving remuneration structure and incentives. The Group will continue to improve the remuneration structure, enhance the staff benefits and put in place a suitable incentives schemes (including but not limited to the adoption of share option scheme and share award scheme) at the right timing in order to ensure that our high calibre core employees are fully committed to serving the Group.

5. Enhancing the business interaction between Oceanwide Holdings and Tonghai Holdings. Building on the established foundation, we carry and realise the Company's objectives gradually. We will leverage the network of substantial shareholders and various advantages to enhance the income of the Group.

About the Company
China Tonghai International Financial Limited (SEHK Code: 0952) is a Hong Kong-based financial services group which has been listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited since 1997. In 2017, the group joined the big family of Oceanwide Holdings Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 000046.SZ). Tonghai Financial is committed to build a comprehensive, full-licensed integrated financial platform. The core businesses of the Company are brokerage business, interest income business, corporate finance business, asset management business and investments and others businesses. The Company strives to become the ideal partner for both corporate and individual investors in Hong Kong and China. The Company also offers premier one-stop financial services to its clients. The Company continued to provide capital markets services through its representative office or the wholly-owned foreign enterprise in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Shenyang, Ningbo, Dalian, Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen of the PRC and through its Global Alliance Partners network and Oaklins International.

For further information, please contact:
China Tonghai International Financial Limited
Ms. Windy Chan (Investor Relations Department)
Tel: (852) 28472201
E-mail: windy.chan@tonghaifinancial.com

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TravelSky Announces 2018 Interim Results; Total Revenue up 12.7 % to RMB3,521.7 Million

August 30, 2018, 12:13 am

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Steady Improvement and Maintain High Quality Development

HONG KONG, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - TravelSky Technology Limited ("TravelSky" or the "Group"; HKEX stock code: 00696), a leading provider of information technology solutions for China's aviation and travel industries, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018.

In 2018, the total revenue of TravelSky amounted to RMB3,521.7 million, representing an increase of 12.7% year-on-year. Profit before taxation increased 14.4% to RMB1,639.1 million. Profit attributable to the equity holders of the Company increased 13.2% to RMB1,347.5 million. Basic and diluted earnings per share were RMB0.46.

During the period under review, revenue of aviation information technology ("AIT") services increased by 7.5% to RMB2,042.5 million, accounting for 58.0% of the total revenue. Revenue of accounting, settlement and clearing services increased by 7.4% to RMB292.3 million, accounting for 8.3% of the total revenue. Revenue of system integration services increased by 67.4% to RMB386.1 million, accounting for 11.0% of the total revenue. Revenue of data network and others increased by 11.1% to RMB800.9 million, accounting for 22.7% of the total revenue.

For AIT services, benefitted from the robust demand in China's aviation market as a whole, the Group's Electronic Travel Distribution (ETD) system has processed approximately 312.9 million flight bookings on domestic and overseas commercial airlines, representing an increase of approximately 11.4% over the same period in 2017. Among which, the processed flight bookings on commercial airlines in China increased by approximately 11.8%, while those on foreign and regional commercial airlines increased by approximately 1.6% and the number of foreign and regional commercial airlines with direct links to the Group's Computer Reservation System (CRS) increased to 144 with the sales percentage through direct links increased to approximately 99.8%.

In the first half of 2018, apart from actively expanding its customer base among domestic and overseas commercial airlines, the Group also further improved the aviation information technology and its extended services, with an aim to strongly support the demand of commercial airlines for the information technology solutions on travel convenience, e-commerce, auxiliary services and internationalization. As a strategic partner of the Fast Travel Project of International Air Transport Association (IATA), the self-developed self-help luggage check-in processing system has already been put into operation in 26 airports for a number of commercial airlines in China. The commonly used self-service checkin system (CUSS), the Company's self-developed product that conforms to IATA standards, has been launched in 150 major domestic and overseas airports, and the online check-in service has been applied in 269 airports at home and abroad. Such products and services, together with the mobile check-in service and the SMS check-in service, processed a total of approximately 140.0 million departing passengers. The number of users of the self-developed mobile application, "Umetrip", has witnessed stable growth. In the first half of 2018, the Group provided full-process convenient clearance technology solutions for China's commercial airlines, to help improve their passengers' experiences in various stages, such as, security check and boarding. The "aviation information inquires" realized civil aviation passenger paperless convenient clearance business and has been put into use in more than 100 airports in China.

For accounting, settlement and clearing services, the Group continued to consolidate and expand the market of accounting, settlement and clearing services, and the research and development and the operation of the relevant systems commenced as schedule. The BSP Online Payment Platform (BOP) has added a new distribution capability (NDC) real-time settlement service, which has enabled the NDC technical standard to be applied to the payment channel for the first time, and the service has been promoted to Hong Kong Airlines Limited. In the first half of 2018, there were approximately 461.6 million transactions processed with accounting, settlement and clearing system and approximately 191.8 million BSP tickets processed with BSP data processing services. In the same period, passenger, cargo and mail sales, miscellaneous fees as well as international and domestic clearing amount processed with the system amounted to approximately USD5.0 billion, and the transaction amount of the electronic payment system was approximately RMB45.3 billion.

For airport information technology services, the Group put greater efforts in marketing, researching and developing the airport information technology service products and actively participated in the airport information system construction projects of domestic airports while persistently reinforcing its market share in the traditional departure front-end service product market. With a dominance in the middle-sized and large-sized airports in China, the new-generation APP departure front-end system facilitated commercial airlines to provide check-in, transit and connecting flight services to passengers in 157 overseas or regional airports, processing approximately 20.9 million passenger departures, accounting for approximately 90.7% of overseas returning passengers of commercial airlines in China. The preparation and implementation of production system deployment of Beijing new airport project are completed according to schedule. Airport Shared Connectivity and Integration (ASCII) has been extended to 15 airports, including new, renovated and expanded airports covering Ningbo Airport and Chongqing Airport. Face recognition system has been put into use in 66 airports including Guangzhou, Qingdao and Harbin.

Mr. Cui Zhixiong, the Chairman of TravelSky said, "Looking forward to the second half of 2018, the Group will based on its development goal, "to establish a worldleading integrated information service company", be centered on its established development strategy, continued to make progress while maintaining stable performance, and kept following high-quality development requirements. Meanwhile, the Group also focused on enhancing its abilities, making up for its weaknesses and attaching great importance to implementation. The Group made preparations for doing well in major security work, strengthened production security and laid a solid foundation for high-quality development. In addition, the Group also focused on optimizing market layout, promoted business development and strengthened the advantages of high-quality development. The Group continued to perfect its infrastructure, sped up technological innovation and explored high-quality development potentials. At the same time, the Group also carried out in phases major reforms, improved management efficiency and strengthened the drivers for high-quality development."

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Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Half-Year Results 2018: Solid Performance for the New Group

August 30, 2018, 1:00 am

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Recurring Earnings per Share (recurring EPS) of EUR6.61 and Adjusted Recurring Earnings per Share of EUR6.58

Paris, Amsterdam, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Half-Year Results 2018: Solid Performance for the New Group

- Recurring EPS grew by +7.3% to EUR6.61 from EUR6.16 in H1-2017
- Net Rental Income (NRI) like-for-like growth in Shopping Centres in Continental Europe: +4.3%, +300 bps above indexation
- Cost of debt remains low at 1.5%, with an average debt maturity of 6.9 years
- Total proportional portfolio value, including Westfield, of EUR63.7 Bn, up +0.6% on a like-for-like basis
- Net asset values per share:
-- Going Concern NAV: EUR227.10, up +3.6%
-- EPRA NNNAV: EUR204.20, up +1.8%
-- EPRA NAV: EUR216.10, up +2.4%
- Development pipeline: EUR12.5 Bn following the Westfield acquisition
- Westfield integration on track

"We are proud to present today the first results of the new Group. June 7, 2018, marked the creation of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the premier global developer and operator of Flagship shopping destinations. Now, the hard work is underway to successfully integrate the new Group. In addition to the momentous amount of work done to close the acquisition of Westfield in record time, we delivered excellent recurring earnings per share growth of +7.3% in H1-2018. I would like to warmly thank the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield teams for this extraordinary achievement. Growth was driven by a strong like-for-like retail NRI(1) increase of +4.3%, an outstanding performance by our offices division, the deliveries in 2017, as well as the contribution from our US and UK assets during June. Since June 30, the Group has agreed to sell or executed the disposal of a total of EUR1.3 Bn of mostly Continental European assets and is working on further disposals. Our credit metrics remain healthy, with a cost of debt of 1.5%, an ICR of 7.1x, and an LTV post disposals of less than 37%. Our focus remains on continuous improvement in our portfolio through disciplined asset management, our rotation strategy, and the build-out of the development pipeline. The skills of the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield team and our best in breed assets are well positioned to deliver value for our shareholders."
Christophe Cuvillier, Group Chief Executive Officer

H1-2018 RECURRING EPS OF EUR6.61, UP +7.3%

Recurring EPS grew by +7.3% to EUR6.61 from H1-2017. The Recurring EPS adjusted for the coupons on the Hybrid Securities was EUR6.58 (+6.8% from H1-2017).

STRONG OPERATING PERFORMANCE IN A CHALLENGING MARKET

Shopping Centres Continental Europe
Tenants sales increased(2) by +2.6% for the Group and by +3.2% for Flagship centres(3), outperforming national sales indices(4) by +131 and +196 bps, respectively. France (+3.3%, outperforming the IFLS index by +337 bps and the CNCC index by +477 bps) and Central Europe (+8.7%, outperforming the weighted average regional sales indices by +515 bps) did especially well.
The like-for-like NRI grew by +4.3%, +300bps above indexation, while that of the Flagship centres increased by +5.7%.The Group signed 641 leases with a Minimum Guaranteed Rent uplift of +10.6%, of which +14.4% for Flagship assets. The rotation rate amounted to 5.9%, in line with Unibail-Rodamco's (UR's) objective of at least 10% in each shopping centre every year, and EPRA vacancy decreased by -10 bps to 2.3%.

Shopping Centres United States and United Kingdom
In the US, the speciality sales productivity per square foot (psf)(5) through June 30, 2018, increased by +4.9% on a trailing 12-month basis. The average letting spreads were +6.9% (+7.6% in Flagship assets) and the average rent for shops under 20k sq. ft was $85 psf, up by +4.2%. As at June 30, 2018, occupancy in the US portfolio stood at 94.3% (95.5% in Flagship assets), a decrease of -140 bps compared to December, 2017, impacted by bankruptcies and certain big box store closures, leading to a negative Comparable NOI(6) growth of -3.0% (-2.6% for Flagship centres). Total NOI increased by +6.1%, primarily as a result of the strong contribution from the deliveries of Westfield Century City and Westfield UTC.
Footfall in the UK was up +3.7% in H1-2018, driven by the opening of the extension of Westfield London. The sales productivity of speciality stores amounted to GBP969 psf, up +0.2% on a trailing 12-month basis. The average MGR uplift was +17%. Occupancy remained strong at 97.7%. Comparable NOI(6) in the UK for H1-2018 grew by +6.7% compared to H1-2017.

Offices
With 1.3 million m2 of office space take-up, demand in the Paris region remained at the highest level since 2007, while the available supply declined by -9% from December 31, 2017. The Group let more than 61,800 m2 in France, including Shift (43,300 m2), fully let to Nestle more than one year before its delivery. Like-for-like NRI increased by +14.4% due to very good leasing performance.

Convention & Exhibition
Recurring NOI increased by +1.2% compared to H1-2017 and by +3.9% compared to H1-2016, the last comparable period. The Recurring NOI in 2018 benefitted from the tri-annual Intermat show, partly offset by the closure for refurbishment of the Pullman Montparnasse hotel in Paris.

VALUE CREATION OF EUR16.74 PER SHARE

The Gross Market Value (GMV) of the Group's assets as at June 30, 2018, amounted to EUR63.7 Bn on a proportional basis, up +46.5% from December 31, 2017, mainly due to acquisition of Westfield. The Continental European portfolio grew by +2.0% to EUR44.4 Bn, or +0.6% on a like-for-like basis.
The Continental European Shopping Centre division GMV grew by +1.4% in total and by +0.7% on a like-for-like basis, driven by a positive rent effect, partly offset by a negative yield effect. The GMV of the Continental European Office division came to EUR4.5 Bn, up +7.0%, including a +2.2% increase on a like-for-like basis, mainly driven by a positive yield effect. The GMV of the Convention & Exhibition division decreased -1.7% on a like-for-like basis.
The average net initial yield of the overall retail portfolio stood at 4.2% (4.3% as at year-end 2017), driven by the inclusion of the US and UK portfolio.
The inclusion of the Westfield portfolio resulted in an increase of EUR19.4 Bn in the Group's proportional GMV, representing 30% of the total.
Going Concern NAV per share stood at EUR227.10 as at June 30, 2018, an increase of +EUR7.90 (+3.6%) compared to December 31, 2017. This increase was the sum of (i) the value creation of EUR16.74 per share, (ii) the impact of the -EUR10.80 dividend paid during H1-2018, and (iii) the +EUR1.96 mark-to-market of the fixed-rate debt and derivatives.

EUR12.5 BN PIPELINE

As at June 30, 2018, the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) Expected Cost(7) of the development pipeline amounted to EUR12.5 Bn. The Group retains flexibility, with committed projects of only EUR2.8 Bn. The retail pipeline is split between greenfield/brownfield projects (52%), which are all in Europe, and extensions and renovations (48%) in both continents. Significant progress has been made on the two major Westfield projects in Europe, with the Compulsory Purchase Order obtained for the Croydon development and the building permit granted for Westfield Milan.
In March 2018, the extension of Westfield London opened six months ahead of schedule, taking the centre to over 240,000 m2 of GLA, making it the largest shopping centre in Europe. The extension was 92% let as at June 30, 2018.

INTEGRATION OF WESTFIELD

On June 7, 2018, UR completed the acquisition of Westfield Corporation to create Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. The new Senior Management Team has been appointed, the new corporate identity implemented and the organization and target model defined. In H2-2018, the Group will continue the detailed work on the combined operations, organisation, and capital structure of the Group. As at June 30, 2018, URW had already achieved run-rate cost synergies of almost EUR74 Mn compared to the EUR60Mn originally budgeted. The revenue synergies are expected to be realized in the next 3 to 5 years as planned.

ASSET ROTATION DISCIPLINE

Including transactions entered into after June 30, 2018, the Group has disposed or agreed to dispose of EUR1.2 Bn of Continental European assets at an aggregate NIY of 4.4%, representing a +6.2% premium to the last unaffected appraisal values. With these transactions, the Group is well underway to reach its previously announced target of EUR3.0 Bn of disposals in Continental Europe in the next several years, with a number of other disposal processes on-going. In addition, URW has disposed of Horton Plaza, one of its US Regional malls, at a price broadly in line with its underwriting.

AVERAGE COST OF DEBT AT 1.5% AND A 6.9 YEAR AVERAGE MATURITY

The financial structure of the Group is healthy with a Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio of 38.0% and an interest coverage ratio of 7.1x (6.7x in 2017 for UR on a stand-alone basis). The LTV, after taking into account the disposals completed since June 30, 2018, or for which binding agreements have been signed, would be 36.7%(8). The average cost of debt of the Group remained low at 1.5%, with an average debt maturity as at June 30, 2018, of 6.9 years, as a result of the inclusion of Westfield's debt.

EUR8.5 BN OF CAPITAL RAISED

To finance the cash component of the Westfield Transaction, the Group issued EUR2.0 Bn of Hybrid securities with a weighted average coupon of 2.4%, and EUR3.0 Bn of senior bonds with a weighted average maturity and coupon of 10 years and 1.3%, respectively.
Additional capital has been raised under URW's EMTN programme for a total amount of EUR540 Mn, as well as a EUR400 Mn "green" revolving credit facility and a USD 3.0 Bn revolving credit facility.

OUTLOOK

URW's Continental European business is trading in line with UR's assumptions for 2018, and the US and UK operations are trading in line with UR's underwriting of the Westfield transaction. Consequently, there currently is no change to the guidance for 2018 provided on January 31, 2018. Following the Group's annual 5-year business plan process, a medium term outlook will be provided at the time of the release of URW's 2018 Full-Year results.

FINANCIAL SCHEDULE

The next financial events on the Group's calendar will be:
October 25, 2018: 2018 3rd Quarter Results
February 13, 2019: 2018 Full-Year results, 2019 guidance and medium-term outlook (after market close)
March 29, 2019: Interim dividend
May 17, 2019: AGM
July 2019: Final dividend

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations
Samuel Warwood
Maarten Otte
+33 1 76 77 58 02
Maarten.otte@urw.com

Media Relations
Nathalie Feld
+33 1 76 77 57 94
Nathalie.feld@ext.urw.com

About Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is the premier global developer and operator of flagship shopping destinations. With a portfolio valued at EUR63.7 Bn as at June 30, 2018, of which 86% in retail, 8% in offices, 5% in convention & exhibition venues and 1% in services. The Group owns and operates 102 shopping centres, of which 56 are flagships in the most dynamic cities in Europe and the United States. Its centres welcome 1.2 billion visits per year. Present on 2 continents and in 13 countries, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield provides a unique platform for retailers and brand events, and offers an exceptional and constantly renewed experience for customers.

With the support of its 3,700 professionals and an unparalleled track-record and know-how, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is ideally positioned to generate superior value and develop world-class projects. The Group has the largest development pipeline in the industry, worth EUR12.5 Bn.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield distinguishes itself by its Better Places 2030 agenda, that sets its ambition to create better places that respect the highest environmental standards and contribute to better cities.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stapled shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris (Euronext ticker: URW), with a secondary listing in Australia through Chess Depositary Interests. The Group benefits from an A rating from Standard & Poor's and from an A2 rating from Moody's.

For more information, please visit www.urw.com
Visit our Media Library at www.mediacentre.urw.com

2018 Half-Year Results URW: http://hugin.info/136618/R/2213164/863141.pdf

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Eisai's LENVIMA (LENVATINIB) Capsules Approved for First-Line Treatment of Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in South Korea

August 30, 2018, 2:36 am

≫ Next: Greenland Hong Kong's Core Net Profit* Surged 267% to RMB213 million in 1H 2018

≪ Previous: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Half-Year Results 2018: Solid Performance for the New Group

TOKYO, Aug 30, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. announced that its South Korea subsidiary Eisai Korea Inc. received approval for the kinase inhibitor LENVIMA (lenvatinib mesylate) as a single agent for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in South Korea. An application seeking approval of LENVIMA for use in the treatment of unresectable HCC was submitted in South Korea in March 2018. This approval for LENVIMA in South Korea marks the second in Asia following approval in Japan. LENVIMA is the first new treatment option approved in ten years as a first-line systemic treatment for HCC in South Korea.

In March 2018, Eisai and Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A, through an affiliate, entered into a strategic collaboration for the worldwide co-development and co-commercialization of LENVIMA. The companies are expected to commence co-commercialization efforts for LENVIMA in South Korea by the end of 2018.

This approval was based on results from REFLECT (Study 304), an open-label, Phase III trial where LENVIMA demonstrated a treatment effect on overall survival (OS)(1) by statistical confirmation of non-inferiority when compared with the standard of care, sorafenib, in 954 patients with previously untreated unresectable HCC. LENVIMA also demonstrated statistically significant superiority and clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free survival (PFS)(2) and objective response rate (ORR)(3).

REFLECT showed that LENVIMA achieved the primary endpoint, demonstrating a treatment effect on OS by statistical confirmation of non-inferiority to sorafenib. Patients treated with LENVIMA experienced a median OS of 13.6 months compared to 12.3 months with sorafenib (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.92; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.79-1.06). The OS analysis was conducted as prespecified in the statistical analysis plan when 351 events had occurred in the LENVIMA arm and 350 events had occurred in the sorafenib arm. Regarding secondary efficacy endpoints, according to independent imaging review based on mRECIST criteria, LENVIMA showed statistically significant superiority and clinically meaningful improvements as compared to sorafenib in median PFS: LENVIMA 7.3 months versus sorafenib 3.6 months (HR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.55-0.75; p
Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths and is estimated to be responsible for approximately 750,000 deaths per year globally. Additionally, approximately 780,000 cases are newly diagnosed each year, about 80% of which occur in Asian regions.(1) HCC accounts for 85% to 90% of primary liver cancer cases. Unresectable HCC, for which treatment options are limited, is extremely difficult to treat, and the development of new treatments is necessary.

LENVIMA has been approved as a treatment for refractory thyroid cancer in over 50 countries including the United States, Japan, in Europe and Asia, and as combination with everolimus as a second-line treatment for RCC in over 45 countries including the United States and in Europe.

Since the initial launch, more than 10,000 patients have been treated with LENVIMA, which is approved in more than 50 countries worldwide. In Japan, approximately 3,000 HCC patients have been treated with LENVIMA since the approval of the HCC indication in March 2018.

Eisai positions oncology as a key therapeutic area, and is aiming to discover revolutionary new medicines with the potential to cure cancer. Eisai is committed to exploring the potential clinical benefits of LENVIMA, in collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A., as it seeks to contribute further to addressing the diverse needs of, and increasing the benefits provided to cancer patients, their families, and healthcare providers worldwide.

(1) Overall Survival (OS): The time period from the commencement of cancer treatment up until death by any cause. Whether the cause of death is cancer or not is not taken into consideration for this variable.
(2) Progression Free Survival (PFS): PFS is the objectively confirmed time from the commencement of cancer treatment to the date of disease progression, or date of death from any cause, whichever occurs first.
(3) Objective Response Rate (ORR): ORR is the combined proportion of patients whose tumor was eliminated (complete response) and whose tumor was reduced by over 30% in size (partial response) as verified by imaging assessment.

About LENVIMA (lenvatinib mesylate)

Discovered and developed in-house by Eisai, LENVIMA is an orally administered kinase inhibitor with a novel binding mode that selectively inhibits the multi activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors (VEGFR1, VEGFR2 and VEGFR3) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors (FGFR1, FGFR2, FGFR3 and FGFR4) in addition to other pathway-related RTKs (including the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor PDGFRalpha; KIT; and RET) involved in tumor angiogenesis, tumor progression and modification of tumor immunity.

Currently, Eisai has obtained approval for LENVIMA as a treatment for refractory thyroid cancer in over 50 countries, including the United States, Japan, in Europe and Asia. Additionally, Eisai has obtained approval for the agent in combination with everolimus as a second-line treatment for RCC in over 45 countries, including the United States and in Europe. In Europe, the agent was launched under the brand name Kisplyx for RCC.

In addition, LENVIMA has been approved as a treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma in Japan, the United States and Europe. Eisai has submitted applications for an indication covering hepatocellular carcinoma in China (October 2017, designated for Priority Review and Approval in December 2017), Taiwan (December 2017), and other countries.

It is important to note that the dose for LENVIMA for patients with unresectable HCC is based on the patient's weight (12 mg for patients weighing 60 kilograms or more, 8 mg for patients weighing less than 60 kilograms); the recommended dosage and dose adjustments are described in the full prescribing information.

About the Eisai and Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A. Strategic Collaboration

In March 2018, Eisai and Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A, through an affiliate, entered into a strategic collaboration for the worldwide co-development and co-commercialization of LENVIMA (lenvatinib). Under the agreement, the companies will jointly develop and commercialize LENVIMA, both as monotherapy and in combination with Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., U.S.A.'s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab). In addition to ongoing clinical studies of the combination, the companies will jointly initiate new clinical studies evaluating the LENVIMA and KEYTRUDA combination to support 11 potential indications in six types of cancer, as well as a basket trial targeting six additional cancer types.

About the REFLECT Trial (Study 304)

REFLECT was a large (n=954) Phase III, randomized, multicenter, open-label trial conducted by Eisai to compare the efficacy and safety of lenvatinib versus sorafenib as a first-line systemic treatment in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Patients at 154 trial sites in 20 countries were randomized to receive lenvatinib 12 mg or 8 mg once a day depending on body weight (>/=60 kg or
In addition, LENVIMA showed statistically significant superiority and clinically meaningful improvements in the secondary efficacy endpoints of PFS and ORR, as confirmed by a blinded independent imaging review (IIR).

Median PFS was doubled with LENVIMA compared to sorafenib: 7.3 months versus 3.6 months (HR: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.55-0.75; p
In addition, median time to progression (TTP) was doubled with LENVIMA compared to sorafenib: 7.4 months versus 3.7 months (HR: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.51-0.71; p
The results of the REFLECT trial were published in The Lancet 2018, 391 (10126), 1163-1173 (published online on February 9, 2018).

About Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC)

Liver cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths and is estimated to be responsible for 750,000 deaths per year globally. Additionally, 780,000 cases are newly diagnosed each year. There is a large regional difference, with about 80% of new cases occurring in Asian regions, including China and Japan.1 HCC accounts for 85% to 90% of primary liver cancer cases. HCC is associated with chronic liver disease, in particular cirrhosis. Major causes of cirrhosis include hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus. However, according to a recent investigation, non-B/non-C HCC is on the rise. Surgery is the first option for treatment, but for patients with unresectable HCC who are not amenable for potentially curative therapeutic interventions, which include liver transplant, surgical resection, and tumor ablation (typically radiofrequency ablation or cryotherapy), or who are not suitable for transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), treatment options are limited and the prognosis is very poor.

About Eisai

Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call our human health care (hhc) philosophy. With approximately 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realize our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products to address unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Neurology and Oncology.

Leveraging the experience gained from the development and marketing of Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, Eisai has been working to establish a social environment that involves patients in each community in cooperation with various stakeholders including the government, healthcare professionals and care workers, and is estimated to have held over ten thousand dementia awareness events worldwide. As a pioneer in the field of dementia treatment, Eisai is striving to not only develop next generation treatments but also to develop diagnosis methods and provide solutions.

For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit https://www.eisai.com.

Contact:
Public Relations Department,
Eisai Co., Ltd.
+81-(0)3-3817-5120

↧

Greenland Hong Kong's Core Net Profit* Surged 267% to RMB213 million in 1H 2018

August 30, 2018, 2:45 am

≫ Next: Tianyun International Announces 2018 Interim Results

≪ Previous: Eisai's LENVIMA (LENVATINIB) Capsules Approved for First-Line Treatment of Unresectable Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in South Korea

Possessing huge land bank ensures sustainable development
Exploring strategic cooperation for mutual benefits

HONG KONG, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Limited ("Greenland Hong Kong" or the "Company", stock code: 337.HK) a subsidiary of Greenland Holdings Corporation Limited ("Greenland Holdings"), which is a leading global real estate company, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June, 2018 (the "period under review").

Business Highlights (As of 30 June 2018)
- Profit for the period attributable to owners of the Company was approximately RMB332 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 46%
- Core net profit* for the period was approximately RMB213 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 267%
- Gross profit margin for the period rose to 24% from 21% for the same period last year
- Basic and diluted earnings per share for the period increased by 57% to RMB0.11The Company acquired 8 pieces of lands with a total GFA of approximately 4.95 million square meters in 7 cities
- Average financing cost remain at approximately 4.7% as at 30 June 2018

*It represents profit and total comprehensive income for the period excluding the post-tax gains arising from fair value changes on investment properties, net exchange gains/losses and net loss on disposal of financial derivatives.

During the period under review, the Company recorded a total revenue of approximately RMB5,302 million, an increase of approximately 12% from the same period last year, primarily due to the increase in gross floor area ("GFA") sold and delivered during the period under review. Net profit attributable to owners of the Company wasRMB332 million, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 46%. Basic and diluted earnings per share attributable to equity holders of the Company amounted to RMB0.11 per share, increased by 57% compared with RMB0.07 per share during the same period last year. In the first half of 2018, the Group achieved total contracted sales of approximately RMB15,315 million and recorded total contracted sales GFA of 1,270,653 square meters.

Consolidates the traditional real estate business and develops market in potential cities with quality land plots

In the first half of 2018, Greenland Hong Kong strategically increased land bank in core urban areas in the Pan-Yangtze River Delta and the Pan-Pearl River Delta. In January 2018, the Company won the bid for large-scale plots of land for the project, located in Dongmeng Economic Development Zone in Nanning of the PRC. In the same month, the Company further acquired a plot of land located in Yulin City, Guangxi Province of the PRC. Moreover, the Company successfully acquired the thousand-acre Songlong Small Town project in Zhaoqing, Guangdong This project will help Greenland Hong Kong further consolidate its presence in the Pearl River Delta.

In April, Greenland Hong Kong announced winning bid for five plots of land in Wujiaba subdistrict, Guandu district, Kunming city, and planned to build a 458-meter super high-rise, Kunming Greenland Southeast Asia Center, to be the landmark of Kunming city. In May, Greenland Hong Kong won a bid for a land parcel in Wujiang District, Suzhou. The project is expected to become a new high-end central area with integrated functions of residence, business and finance.

Greenland Hong Kong planned to develop a high-quality project in the urban core area. In June, the Company successfully won bid for Little Swan plot in Liangxi district, Wuxi city. In the same month, the Company further acquired a new plot of land, namely Health Home, in Liangxi district, Wuxi city. The project is located in the downtown of Wuxi, also situated in the economy circle within one-hour drive way from Shanghai. The project is endowed with high development value. At the end of June, Greenland Hong Kong successfully won bid for Yiwu project as the first entry into the mid-Zhejiang province, to further develop the market in Zhejiang province.

As at 30 June 2018, Greenland Hong Kong held a land bank of approximately 20 million square meters, which is sufficient to support its development in the next three to four years. The Company will continue to seek additional high-quality land projects with promising potential of development, exploit regional advantages and enhance regional value.

Enhances industry chain layout and supports the old town renovation projects of local governments with own strengths

As the income and health awareness of Chinese citizens arose, and national policies promoted, the demand for health care industry was greatly increased. Greenland Hong Kong would seize market opportunity, focus on healthcare businesses by leveraging its strong brand advantages to create a high-quality life and health service platform. Greenland Hong Kong was also partner with Provectus Care, a renowned Australian elderly care company, and Shanghai International Medical Centre, a domestic top medical institution, to establish the first Shanghai-based medical institution focusing on Dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, and to establish a high-end brand of old-age care, rehabilitation and nursing. In addition, Greenland Hong Kong Health Investment Company was formally established to form a well-established industry chain layout demonstrateing Greenland Hong Kong's determination to deeply explore the big health industry.

Furthermore, Greenland Hong Kong entered into the framework cooperation agreement on the comprehensive renovation projects in five shanty areas with Liangxi Regional People's Government of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Relying on its own advantages in property development, urban planning and industrial resources, Greenland Hong Kong will support Wuxi's industrial transformation and upgrading based on Liangxi District's industrial planning and development direction.

Greenland Hong Kong said, "The gradual shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality growth of China's economy has provided increasingly stable external conditions for the real estate market. In the future, with the regulatory remain stable for the real estate market, the housing system will be enhanced through making rental housing as important as home purchasing; and the supply-side structural reform will be deepened to promote the long-term mechanism of the real estate market. Greenland Hong Kong will consistently focus on its real estate business, further explore and preserve high-quality land parcels, expand the high-end residential market, penetrate into the core cities in Pan-Yangtze River Delta and Pan-Pearl River Delta, and address the multilevel consumers' demands in the real estate market. Furthermore, the Company will continuously advance the business strategy of "Real Estate +", establish property projects in sectors such as cultural and business tourism as well as medical and healthcare, reduce cost and raise efficiency, optimize investment structure, and enhance its competitiveness and market influence so as to lay a solid foundation for the business development and work hard towards the sales target of hundred billion dollars."

Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Limited
Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Limited (Stock Code: 337.HK) is the subsidiary of Greenland Group, a Fortune Global 500 company. For a development history of 26 years, Greenland Group has created the diversified development pattern of "focusing on the development of real estate market and placing an equal stress on the emerging sectors like Big Infrastructure, Big Finance, Big Consumption, Healthcare Industry and Innovation Industry", and implemented the strategy of capitalized, popularized and internationalized development. Greenland Group has secured its market presence across over 100 domestic and overseas cities across countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. Based on Greenland Holdings' mature brand image, abundant resources, large-scale system, advanced management level and passionate corporate culture, Greenland Hong Kong will comprehensively integrate all the existing resources, fully utilize the advantages of capital platform in Hong Kong, and strive to grow into the real estate pacesetter at Hong Kong's capital market.

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Tianyun International Announces 2018 Interim Results

August 30, 2018, 3:10 am

≫ Next: Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

≪ Previous: Greenland Hong Kong's Core Net Profit* Surged 267% to RMB213 million in 1H 2018

Transformed into a Consumer Brand Business with Solid Growth
Diversified product strategy to consolidate market leadership

HONG KONG, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Tianyun International Holdings Limited ("Tianyun International", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), a leading seller and manufacturer of processed fruits products in China, announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2018 ("Review Period"). During the Review Period, the Group strived to develop its business, actively expanded its sales channels, and launched a richer product line to the market. The sales performance and brand awareness were further enhanced. The Group maintained parallel development strategy of its own brand and OEM business, the Group's revenue, gross profit and net profit grew 28.0%, 31.6% and 29.1% respectively to RMB439.3 million, RMB122.1 million and RMB67.5 million, of which revenue from our own brand business even soared by 51.0% to RMB209.5 million.. The share of our own brand business in the Group's total revenue further rose to 47.7%. Our own brand business segment becomes the largest reported segment for the first time. During the Review Period, the Group was honoured with the title of "2017 Linyi Mayors Quality Award" and "2018 China Canned Food Leading Brand" and many other honours. Meanwhile, with its outstanding brand value impact, the Group once again topped in the 2018 Most Valuable Chinese Brands List for its outstanding brand influence. The steady increase of market share and consumer recognition of the Group's own brand will further strengthen the Group's leading market position in the upgraded consumer goods industry.

Precise Brand Development Strategy Increase Brand Awareness Steadily

During the Review Period, the growth of our own brand business was strong, revenue from our own brand business even experienced a period-on-period growth of 51.0% to RMB209.5 million. The Group actively participated in various national food fairs, and developed outstanding regional distributors and chain superstore channels, successfully strengthened interaction and cooperation with our distributors. The number of exclusive regional distributors has also expanded to 204 and we have successfully made our products available at chain supermarkets with a large number of branches such as RT-Mart and CR Vanguard. At the same time, the Group also increased its efforts to promote the Group's brand and product edge, and organized a variety of promotional activities with regional market characteristics to launch different packaging products to meet the needs of various target customer groups. The Group's series of brand development strategies has closely followed the market trend of consumption upgrade, which was conducive to accelerating the Group's development pace in the domestic market.

Grasped New Opportunities for E-commerce Development and secured more Quality OEM Customers

Driven by consumption upgrade, online and offline integration has become the mainstream trend of brand development. During the Review Period, revenue from online sales grew to RMB35.2 million, representing 16.8% of the Group's revenue from the own brand business.. By upgrading the product packaging design, updating the webpage of the online store, organising various reward programmes and implementing other online sales strategies , the Group has enhanced its online brand image and established good product reputation, which has boosted the growth of online sales. The Group will also take advantage of the existing sales advantages of fresh fruit, actively focus on the development trend of fresh fruit e-commerce, actively seek out well-known partners related to fresh fruit, increase the variety of fresh fruit and exchange circulation to enrich consumers' demand for diversified fresh fruit products.

During the Review Period, our OEM business continued to develop steadily with minimal impact from the U.S. - China trade dispute. The demand from developed countries for "Made-in-China" processed food products remained strong. The Group will continue to cultivate more new quality customers in Canada, Europe and other regions to increase its international market share.

Diversified Product Types to Enhance Core Competitiveness

The Group has committed to improving its production capacity, brand and channels to adapt to the changing market and accelerate business development. In face of growing market demand, the Group continued to advance the enhancement and upgrade of its production facilities, promote refined management, and adopt the de-seasonalised modes of production strategy to raise its production efficiency and capacity. Preparations for production workshops No. 5 and No. 6 are actively in process.

In terms of brand, the Group attaches great importance to improving product quality, striving to maintain a good reputation for quality, safety, health, deliciousness and nutrition, upgrading product packaging, injecting more fashion and leisure elements, and strengthening cooperation with distributors to promote all-rounded marketing activities to enhance the visibility of their products. The Group also stabilizes its brand position by launching a variety of new products. The Group has successfully developed a fat-free pure fruit snack which is very similar to ice-cream, for which a patent application has been accepted. In addition, the functional beverage formula and healthy pudding with different flavours developed by the Group will gradually be rolled out based on market conditions. In the future, the Group will focus on building its own brand and further consolidate its leading position in the market through a more targeted brand strategy.

In terms of channels, the Group will continue adopting parallel development strategy for online and offline bussiness. The Group actively expands distributors such as supermarket chains. The geographical coverage of our own brand products has further extended to 24 provinces, direct-controlled municipalities and autonomous regions. In terms of online sales, the Group has updated the webpage of the online store, optimized its brand image by optimizing the operation of e-commerce platforms such as WeChat and Tmall. Meanwhile, the Group is still actively seeking cooperation opportunities, striving to enhance the Group's brand recognition and extend our snack and beverage product line and possessing fruit processing capability in both domestic and overseas locations in order to lower tariff risks arising from international trade disputes.

Mr. Yang Ziyuan, Chairman and CEO of the Group, said, "The development of the Group's own brand has achieved remarkable results in the first half of 2018, and the brand recognition and reputation was being further improved. I am delighted and proud of the Group's further breakthrough in China upgrading consumer goods industry. As consumers continuously seek new flavours and experience in different flavours, we have sustained our innovative efforts, introducing a diverse range of new products with different flavours. Among these, a fat-free pure fruit snack food will be officially launched in the mainland China,Hong Kong and Macau markets in the fourth quarter of 2018.The new product is a healthy snack food, which does not contain any fat, and can be transported and stored at room temperature. It is a revolutionary product that is convenient for transportation and storage, which contains original fruit taste and nutrition with a soft taste like ice-cream after freezing for a few hours. Meanwhile, the Group has numerous new products either in the pipeline or currently undergoing R&D, such as healthy pudding with different flavours. These innovative snacks will be gradually rolled out based on market circumstances, in order to satisfy and suit the tastes and demands of consumers in different age groups. "

"Recently, China government attaches great importance to food safety and is promoting food safety to the national strategic level. As a company with a high sense of social responsibility, we will continue to take food safety as our highest mission. High quality is an important direction of food consumption upgrade. We will strengthen product innovation, strive to enrich product categories, and provide consumers with safe, nutritious, delicious and convenient processed fruit products. In face of new market opportunities, we will formulate more business strategies which meet the needs of the market and further explore various sales channels. We strive to become one of the leading enterprises in China and international fruit processing industry, and bring stable and sustainable investment returns to shareholders and investors."

About Tianyun International Holding Limited (Stock Code: 6863.HK)
Tianyun International Holdings Limited (the "Company") and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as the "Group") are principally engaged in (i) the production and sales of processed fruit packaged in metal containers, plastic cups and glass containers and ii) trading of fresh fruit. Processed fruit products are sold both on an OEM basis and under our own brands. On 7 July 2015, the Group was successfully listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited which had further consolidated our leading position in China's processed fruit product industry.

The Group has been consistently committed to provide healthy and safe products to its customers. As one of the food enterprises with the most complete quality certifications, we have always been dedicated to following stringent international production standards and are accredited with BRC (A+), IFS Food (High), FDA, HALAL, SC, KOSHER, BSCI and ISO22000 in respect of our production facilities, quality control and management. The Group has also passed the internal food production standard reviews and audits from some of the UK and US supermarket chains. At the same time, within China, as a "Equal production line; Equal standard; Equal quality" food production and export enterprise, the Group has been supplying products of equivalent quality to domestic and international markets. Since 2016, the Group's own brand processed fruit products have continued to obtain a high degree of market recognition, and have been awarded by a national institution the honour and qualification of "China Canned Product Quality Certification Label", become the first and only fruit processor in China's fruit processing industry to put the "Zero Added Preservative Canned Products" label for its products sold in China.
For more information, please visit www.tianyuninternational.com

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Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

August 30, 2018, 3:36 am

≫ Next: Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

≪ Previous: Tianyun International Announces 2018 Interim Results

Strategic Expansion to Tap Increasing Demand and Drive Future Growth
Strives to Become an Integrated Smart Energy Provider in China
HK IPO in progress

HONG KONG, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Changfeng Energy Inc. ("Changfeng" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"), a company listed on the Canadian Exchange (TSXV: CFY) today announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018 ("1H 2018").

Financial Highlights

- Revenue increased by 20% to RMB204.9 million (1H 2017: RMB170.2 million)
- Gross profit grew by 14% to RMB89.2 million (1H 2017: RMB78.3 million)
- Profit attributable to shareholders from continuing operations increased by 73% to RMB 34.4 million (1H 2017: RMB19.8 million)
- Total gas volume sold up by 19%
- Basic earnings per share from continuing operations was RMB0.53 (1H 2017: RMB0.30)

For 1H 2018, the Group recorded total revenue of RMB204.9 million (1H 2017: RMB170.2 million), up by 20% year-on-year ("YoY"). Of the total revenue, gas distribution utility and compressed natural gas ("CNG") vehicle refueling contributed RMB176.3 million and RMB28.6 million respectively. Gross profit rose by 14% to RMB89.2 million (1H 2017: RMB78.3 million). EBITDA from continuing operations was RMB 32.2 million (1H 2017: RMB28.0 million). Profit attributable to shareholders from continuing operations was RMB34.4 million (1H 2017: RMB19.8 million), increased by 73% YoY, due to increase in profit from continue operations and fair value change relating to the disposal of controlling interest in a subsidiary. Basic earnings per share from continuing operations amounted to RMB0.53 (1H 2017: RMB0.30).

This is the second year of Changfeng's three-year plan to strategically shift its corporate focus to sustainable energy in combination with natural gas to become an integrated energy provider in the PRC. During the reported period, total gas sales volume rose by 19% to 29.5 million cubic metres, mainly contributed by Sanya and the commencement of gas sales in the Hebei region in the second quarter of 2018. Increase in gas price continued since May 2017.

Mr. Huajun Lin, Chairman, President and CEO of Changfeng, who has over 20 years of experience in the natural gas industry, said: "We are pleased to have delivered satisfactory results with growing revenue and improved profitability. We expect the volume of gas sold during the rest of the year to increase with our existing pipeline networks in the Sanya Region continuing to add both residential and commercial and industrial customers to its network, the industrial customers in Hebei Province, and the successful procurement of the two new LNG supply customers in Wenchang City, Hainan Province this month, which marked Changfeng's first step into extending its natural gas distribution business outside of Sanya City on the Hainan Island.

We will continue to put great effort in the preparation of the HK IPO as to meet the target of successful listing on the HKEx within the first half of 2019, which will serve to broaden Changfeng's investor base, increase stock liquidity, and allow the company to gain access to and recognition of strategic investors in the Chinese market."

Business Review

Projects in Operation

Currently Changfeng has six projects in operation: two pipeline natural gas distribution projects, two liquefied natural gas ("LNG") supply distribution projects, and two compressed natural gas ("CNG") vehicle refueling stations. Changfeng has a 30-year exclusive concession right to distribute natural gas in Sanya City and the supply of natural gas to three factories in Xingtai City, Shijiazhuang City and Baoding City, Hebei Province, which officially commenced in March 2018, April 2018 and May 2018 respectively.

Projects under Development

Major projects under development include the integrated smart energy project (the "Haitang Bay Integrated Smart Energy Project") which combines the usage of multiple clean energy sources, including solar, hydro, electricity, and natural gas (CCHP/Co-Gen), to supply cooling, heating, as well as hot water to the hotels, shopping centers, and households in the Haitang Bay area of Sanya City Hainan Province, with the 30-year concession right to build, own and operate four energy-processing stations there.

IPO Schedule in Hong Kong

Changfeng has been pursuing its plans to launch a public offering (the "HK IPO") of its shares together with the listing of its shares on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "HKEx"). Since late 2017, the Company has successfully procured several new projects that are currently either under development or at the initial stage of operation, whose contributions will only be reflected in the financial results as those projects become fully operational.

Consequently, management of Changfeng has determined to reschedule its pursuit of the HK IPO for completion during the first half of 2019, which would permit it to advance these new projects and enable their results to be reflected in its financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2018, thereby incorporating those results in the HK IPO process and potentially enhancing the Company's valuation.

Prospects and Strategic Focus

For the rest of 2018, Changfeng will continue to implement its long-term growth strategy through its proposed Guangdong Grid pipelined gas project in the Western Guangdong area of the Guangdong Province and work towards moving forward the development of the Haitang Bay Integrated Smart Energy Project with the EDF Group in Sanya City to commence commercial operation by the end of 2018.

Changfeng has always strived to provide natural gas to its customers, a cleaner alternative to coal since the Company's inception over 20 years ago. As the Chinese economy now moves away from fossil dependency in correspondence with central government guidance, Changfeng looks to integrated smart energy and clean technology to complement the usage of natural gas. The following three sectors will be Changfeng's main business lines in the next three years from 2017-2019: a) natural gas downstream distribution, including urban city pipeline gas distribution, gas refueling stations, and LNG distribution; b) integrated smart energy system to distribute power, heat, cooling, and hot water; and c) natural gas mid-stream infrastructure.

Mr. Lin concluded: "Since the Company's inception over 20 years ago, Changfeng has always strived to provide natural gas, a cleaner alternative to coal, to our customers. We believe that China's smart energy is on a strong growth trend and presents huge potential with opportunities. Changfeng will continue to adhere to its development strategies and leverage its abundant experience in operating an advanced model so as to provide cleaner energy, striving for the highest returns to our shareholders."

About Changfeng Energy Inc. (Toronto listed symbol: TSXV:CFY)
Changfeng Energy Inc. is a leading integrated smart energy provider and natural gas distribution company (or natural gas utility) in China. Changfeng has been listed on the Toronto stock exchange of Canada ("TSXV") since 2008, and is the only natural gas company in China listed on the TSXV. In 2009, Changfeng was recognized as one of China's Top Ten Most Influential Brands in the natural gas industry. For details of Changfeng, please visit: www.changfengenergy.com.

↧

Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

August 30, 2018, 4:42 am

≫ Next: Risecomm Announces 2018 Interim Results

≪ Previous: Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

↧

Risecomm Announces 2018 Interim Results

August 30, 2018, 12:44 am

≫ Next: HMS Networks completes repurchase of shares

≪ Previous: Changfeng Energy Announces 2018 Interim Results; Profit Attributable to Shareholders from Continuing Operations Increased by 73% to RMB34.4 Million

Growth of Two Major Businesses Drives Total Revenue Increases 27.0%
Poised to Face a New Phase of Upgrades for Smart Meters in China

HONG KONG, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Risecomm Group Holdings Limited ("Risecomm" or the "Group") (Stock Code: 1679), one of the largest power-line communications ("PLC") technology enterprises in China, has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018 (the "period under review").

During the period under review, the Group achieved growth in both the automated meter reading ("AMR") business and the smart energy management ("SEM") business, driving revenue to increase by approximately 27.0% to approximately RMB174 million. However, affected by the decrease of gross profit in the AMR business segment, the Group's gross profit was adjusted to approximately RMB47.2 million, with a gross profit margin of approximately 27.1%. Net loss for the period under review attributable to the equity shareholders of the Company was approximately RMB9.2 million.

Business Review

The Group's two major business segments, namely the AMR and SEM businesses, both recorded growth, occupying approximately 94.5% and 5.5% of its total revenue respectively.

AMR Business

During the period under review, revenue from the AMR business segment increased by approximately 26.8% to approximately RMB164.8 million, which was attributable to the significant increase in sales of PLC products to customers through trading sales and local bidding under the State Grid Corporation of China ("State Grid") and China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. ("Southern Grid").

Generally speaking, sales secured through centralized bidding under the State Grid earn a relatively higher gross profit margin when compared with those through local bidding under the State Grid and Southern Grid. Given that the penetration of smart meters under the first round of the State Grid's commercial deployment was reaching saturation and a new industry standard for broadband PLC was formally adopted in 2017, the State Grid had exhibited a slowdown in its procurement of smart meters during the transitional period. Therefore, a significant drop in the revenue from sales of PLC products to customers through centralized bidding was recorded when compared to the corresponding period last year. The surge of revenue from sales of PLC products to customers through trading sales and local bidding under the State Grid and Southern Grid only partially compensated for the decrease of gross profit attributable to the decrease in revenue from sales of PLC products to customers under State Grid centralized bidding. With the constant change of the AMR products market demand, the Group will adjust its business strategy and expand its businesses flexibly in order to keep pace with market trends.

SEM Business

Revenue from the SEM business segment increased approximately 31.9% to approximately RMB9.5 million, benefitting from a significant increase in the sales of streetlight control devices during the period under review. As a pioneer in the SEM industry, the Group has strived to enhance product development as well as its sales and marketing capability, with the aim to boost the growth of this segment.

Prospects

Although the AMR business segment encountered temporary headwinds, the Group still aims to be a leading PLC technology company and turnkey solutions provider in China by strategically offering a full range of products and solutions across its AMR business and SEM applications.

Regarding the AMR business segment, as smart meters in China are expected to enter a new phase of upgrades from 2018 onward, the centralized bidding volume of smart meters conducted by the State Grid and Southern Grid is expected to grow in the next five years. The Group is confident that the demand for PLC products will soon recover once the deployment of broadband PLC products is confirmed. Leveraging its strong capabilities in PLC technology and research and development ("R&D"), the Group will exert its best efforts to continue expanding its market share and strengthen its industry position.

Within the SEM business segment, seeing huge market potential in SEM systems for industrial and enterprise applications, the Group has applied its proprietary PLC technology in its SEM products and solutions. This approach not only can help clients to achieve better energy management and conservation, but also to further expand the Group's customer base, generate new revenue streams and reduce its reliance on China's power distribution sector.

The Group has explored opportunities elsewhere in the market while consolidating its existing businesses. In particular, the Group explores the opportunities to expand its PLC products and solutions to other industrial application areas. With the Chinese government actively promoting national industrial upgrade, the petrochemical industry, a strategic pillar of the manufacturing sector in China, is expected to gain support from the government in the development of information systems. On 15 August 2018, the Group has completed the acquisition of a company operating the industrial automation system business, particularly in the area of maintenance and safety integrity systems ("MSI") for the petroleum and petrochemicals industries. This acquisition opens up opportunities for the Group to directly reach customers in those industries in order to promote its other SEM products and solutions, thereby substantially reducing time and uncertainty as well as the costs of pre-marketing and pilot projects. This acquisition facilitates the Group's expansion into those industries in the near-to-medium term.

As for sales and R&D, the Group has completed the acquisition of North Mountain Information Technology Company Limited, which is principally engaged in the sale and distribution of electronic components, in particular for ICs and related products in China, in April 2018. This acquisition further strengthens the Group's sales capability and expansion in AMR business markets. Furthermore, the Group has hired several external research and development consultants with complementary expertise to cooperate in various R&D projects, including the development of broadband PLC, "PLC+RF" technology and the driver of the second-generation PLC ICs so as to realize and complement the software module development of the mainframe host station for the Group's SEM business. These leading-edge technologies help the Group maintain its competitive advantage.

Looking ahead, the Group will continue to focus on enhancing the functionality of its products, progressively expanding its sales channels and enhancing its brand recognition in both the AMR and SEM markets. Buttressed by its extensive industry experience and excellent track record, the Group will seize the opportunities arising from the new round of smart meter upgrades and expansion of the SEM sector in China to actively expand its markets and generate fruitful return for shareholders.

About Risecomm Group Holdings Limited
Founded in 2006, Risecomm Group Holdings Limited is a power line communications (PLC) technology company specializing in the design,development and sale of system-on-chip ICs, modules, devices and solutions adopting the PLC technology. As one of China's largest PLC technology companies, the Group's core competence is the development of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and its proprietary ASICs are embedded in all of its PLC products. With the support of a strong R&D team and abundant resources, the Group continues to pursue technological innovation. The Group's PLC products are used mainly by the power grid companies in China. It is one of the first PLC technology companies to have AMR products commercially deployed in State Grid's AMR systems. At the same time, the Group is the largest PLC solutions provider for streetlight control in China, and also provides various PLC products and solutions for a number of applications related to energy saving and environmental protection. For more details about Risecomm, please visit website: http://www.risecomm.com.cn/en/.

Media Enquiries:
Strategic Financial Relations Limited
Heidi So Tel: (852) 2864 4826 Email: heidi.so@sprg.com.hk
Cecilia Shum Tel: (852) 2864 4890 Email: cecilia.shum@sprg.com.hk
Boni Liu Tel: (852) 2864 4870 Email: boni.liu@sprg.com.hk
www.sprg.com.hk

↧

HMS Networks completes repurchase of shares

August 30, 2018, 1:00 am

≫ Next: DOCOMO to Test IoT-Based Video Capture Leveraging Edge Computing

≪ Previous: Risecomm Announces 2018 Interim Results

Halmstad, SWEDEN, Aug 30, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - HMS Networks AB (publ) has on August 30, 2018 purchased 70,000 shares (ISIN SE0009997018) for a weighted average price of SEK 150.60. HMS Networks' holdings of own shares amounts to 292,825 after the repurchase. The total number of outstanding shares in the company is 46,818,868. The repurchase has been made on Nasdaq Stockholm.

For more information, please contact:
Staffan Dahlstrom, CEO HMS, +46 709-17 29 01
Joakim Nideborn, CFO HMS, +46 707-72 29 83

This information is such that HMS Networks AB (publ) is required to disclose pursuant to Nasdaq Stockholm's Rulebook for Issuers.

HMS Networks AB (publ) is the leading independent supplier of solutions for industrial communication. HMS develops and manufactures solutions for connecting automation devices and systems to industrial networks and IIoT under the Anybus(R), IXXAT(R) and eWON(R) brands. Communication solutions for building automation are offered through the subsidiary Intesis. Development and manufacturing take place at the headquarters in Halmstad, Ravensburg, Nivelles and Igualada. Local sales and support are handled by branch offices in Japan, China, Germany, USA, Italy, France, Belgium, Singapore, Spain, India, UK, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, as well as through an extensive network of distributors. HMS employs over 500 people and reported sales of 119 million EUR in 2017. HMS is listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Stockholm, category Mid Cap, Information Technology.

Attachment
PRM - HMS completes repurchase of shares (ENG) https://bit.ly/2LFxFeb

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DOCOMO to Test IoT-Based Video Capture Leveraging Edge Computing

August 30, 2018, 2:31 am

≫ Next: Hong Kong Blockchain Educational Base Officially Established To Provide Blockchain Programmes

≪ Previous: HMS Networks completes repurchase of shares

- NTT DOCOMO Ventures Makes Supporting Investment in Object Storage Leader Cloudian -

TOKYO, Aug 30, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - NTT DOCOMO, INC. (DOCOMO) it has commenced a proof-of-concept (PoC) aimed at realizing a new video IoT solution that will enable the interpretation and analysis of video data sourced from surveillance cameras using edge computing. In connection with this initiative, DOCOMO also announced that it has made a strategic investment in Cloudian, a Silicon Valley-based leader in enterprise object storage systems and developer of the Cloudian AI Box, a compact, high-speed AI data processing device equipped with camera connectivity and LTE / Wi-Fi capabilities, facilitating edge AI computing with both indoor and outdoor communications. The investment was made through NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of DOCOMO, and both companies plan to promote solutions utilizing the new technology.

The solution being evaluated will interpret and analyze video data sourced using edge computing, supplementing processing performed in the cloud to provide superior IoT data processing capabilities. As a first step, the PoC will test and evaluate the sourcing of data from surveillance cameras, aiming to develop a solution that uses existing cameras, requires no wired connectivity and does not involve the transmission of large quantities of data.

The interpretation and analysis of video data from surveillance cameras are expected to be deployed in a wide range of scenarios, such as in general security, quality inspections during manufacturing processes, human presence detection, and marketing initiatives at retail stores. Until now, the transfer and processing of large volumes of video data to the cloud was a lengthy process involving significant delays and placing a considerable burden on cloud infrastructures and communication networks. The new solution will aim to address these shortcomings and herald a new era of high speed image recognition and processing accelerated by edge computing.

1) Video IoT Solution Architecture

1. Single Edge Framework
http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_DOCOMOFrameworkFig1.jpg

2. Edge-Cloud Linked Framework
http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_DOCOMOFrameworkFig2.jpg

2) Equipment
http://www.acnnewswire.com/topimg/Low_DOCOMOFrameworkFig3.jpg

3) Cloudian Company Information

Cloudian turns information into insight with a hyperscale data fabric that lets customers store, find and protect data across the organization and around the globe. Cloudian data management solutions bring cloud technology and economics to the data center with uncompromising data durability, intuitive management tools, and the industry's most compatible S3 API. Cloudian and its ecosystem partners help Global 1000 customers simplify unstructured data management today, while preparing for the data demands of AI and machine learning tomorrow.

About NTT DOCOMO Ventures

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, the NTT Group's corporate venture capital firm, aims to accelerate innovation for creation of new services, disruptive technologies and innovative processes serving as a primary channel for startup companies and venture communities on behalf of the NTT Group, Japan's leading ICT service provider. We proactively enhance cooperation with exceptional entrepreneurs on a worldwide scale by providing capital from our corporate venture funds and vast business development opportunities with the NTT Group companies. New windowwww.nttdocomo-v.com/en/

Contact:
NTT DOCOMO
International PR
Public Relations Department
Tel: +81-3-5156-1366    
Fax: +81-3-5501-3408
URL: www.nttdocomo.com
Contact: https://nes.nttdocomo.co.jp/PINQ01/showinquiry.do

↧

Hong Kong Blockchain Educational Base Officially Established To Provide Blockchain Programmes

August 31, 2018, 1:30 am

≫ Next: Mitsubishi Corporation Announces Partnership with Fast Retailing to Develop UNIQLO Retail Business in Vietnam

≪ Previous: DOCOMO to Test IoT-Based Video Capture Leveraging Edge Computing

From left: Representative of CIIA, Mr.Xie Jinyie; Golden Finger (Shenzhen) Block Chain Tech Co., Ltd, Mr. Austin Leung; Academic Director of BITWORK, Mr. Eric Dao; and Founder of Blockchain Industry Analyst Association, Dr. Colin Lee signed the cooperation agreement

Ms Xu Xueqing from CIIA delivered her speech.

HONG KONG, Aug 31, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Golden Finger (Shenzhen) Block Chain Tech Co.,Ltd, Blockchain Industry Analyst Association, and BITWORK had signed a cooperation agreement. The ceremony was held at the BITWORK Headquarter, attended by Managing Director of Golden Finger (Shenzhen) Block Chain tech Co.,Ltd, Mr. Austin Leung; Founder of Blockchain Industry Analyst Association, Dr. Colin Lee; and Academic Director of BITWORK, Mr. Eric Dao. Meanwhile, Manager of the China Information Industry Association (CIIA), Mr. Xie Jinyie were also invited to witness this legendary moment.

This blockchain educational training programme is designed to introduce blockchain technology to the community through blockchain educational trainings, seminars, forums, and other activities. The blockchain educational training programme is outlined and authorized to Golden Finger (Shen Zhen) Block Chain Tech Co.,Ltd for marketing operation by CIIA. The syllabus will include blockchain definition, Bitcoin introduction, Ethereum introduction, blockchain industry foundation, and other blockchain professional information. The certificate is approved by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China (MOHRSS).

Golden Finger (Shenzhen) Block Chain Tech Co.,Ltd has dedicated to promote blockchain education and the application of "Internet of Things (IoT) + blockchain". With the mission of "promoting technological development and achieving social advancement". The company has been wholly devoted to advocate the development of human society through inventing and applying breakthrough technologies. Meanwhile, the team of Golden Finger is able to efficiently construct upper application services in order to fulfil a diverse and extensive business settings.

The CIIA was established with the approval of Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China in April, 1989. It was formed by voluntary individuals and organizations from economic, technological and societal spheres. The CIIA was a national social organization qualified as legal persons; mainly responsible for the trainings, seminars, forums and other activities in the South China region. It was governed by the National Development and Reform Commission, and administered by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People's Republic of China. Its operations were under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Ms Xu Xueqing from the CIIA had attending the cooperation agreement ceremony. She expressed, "The rising trend of blockchain industry needs not only more capital and administrators, but also the effort from the professionals. As the pioneer to enter the blockchain sector, the blockchain community of BITWORK has an influential role in Hong Kong. We are expecting more ambitious and aspiring individuals to join us for further training and cultivation."

About BITWORK
BITWORK is a blockchain community-based company with providing top end blockchain services and solutions in Hong Kong. We are dedicated to promote the blockchain technology in enterprise level for existing industries such as banking, health care, education and government departments. Thereby helping company to smoothly transform their businesses into the blockchain area and get connected with the world. BITWORK will assist Hong Kong citizens and enterprises to access blockchain technology in four business aspects by providing one-stop service and support. We will maximize their business potential by offering education as well as top-end consulting services and currency management services, effectively popularizing blockchain and facilitating Hong Kong to build a brand new ecological blockchain system.

About Golden Finger (Shen Zhen) Block Chain tech Co., Ltd
With the mission to "promoting technological development and achieving social advancement", Golden Finger (Shen Zhen) Block Chain tech Co., Ltd has been wholly devoted to advocate the development of human society through inventing and applying breakthrough technologies. Hence, their team is able to efficiently construct upper application services in order to fulfil a diverse and extensive business settings. Golden Finger (Shen Zhen) Block Chain tech Co., Ltd is dedicated to the promotion of blockchain education and the application of "Internet of Things (IoT) + blockchain".

Media Enquiry
Senior Marketing and PR Manager
Mr. Daniel Ip
Tel: +852 6155 8215
E-mail: daniel.ip@bitwork.asia

Marketing Executive
Ms Veneesa Lee
Tel: +852 6486 1007
E-mail: veneesa@bitwork.asia

↧

Mitsubishi Corporation Announces Partnership with Fast Retailing to Develop UNIQLO Retail Business in Vietnam

August 31, 2018, 1:46 am

≫ Next: Volta Finance Limited: Dividend Declaration

≪ Previous: Hong Kong Blockchain Educational Base Officially Established To Provide Blockchain Programmes

TOKYO, Aug 31, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has partnered with Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. to launch and develop UNIQLO's retail business in the Republic of Vietnam from Fall, 2019.

The companies will launch the business together by opening the first UNIQLO store in Ho Chi Minh City, establishing the UNIQLO brand in the country's most populous city before considering other areas. Recruiting of local talent will commence immediately in preparation for the opening of the first UNIQLO store in one of Southeast Asia's most exciting, high-growth economies.

Fast Retailing Co., Ltd opened its first UNIQLO store in Singapore in 2009, signaling the start of its business in the Southeast Asia and Oceania region. UNIQLO then launched retail operations in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia. As of the end of May 2018, the company has 193 UNIQLO stores in the Southeast Asia and Oceania region.

MC began operating in Vietnam in 1955 and the company has been expanding its businesses in a wide range of industries, including automobiles and industrial machinery.

Vietnam will be the fourth country in which Fast Retailing and MC have established a joint venture company(1) following Thailand in 2011, Indonesia in 2013, and Russia in 2017. In these countries, UNIQLO's business has grown to 39 stores in Thailand, 18 stores in Indonesia, and 29 stores in Russia as of the end of May 2018.

Joint Venture Overview
Company name: UNIQLO VIETNAM CO., LTD.
Location: Ho Chi Minh, Republic of Vietnam
Representative: Satoshi Hatase, Fast Retailing Group Senior Vice President
Capital contribution(1): Fast Retailing (Singapore) PTE. LTD. - 75%; Mitsubishi Corporation - 25%

(1) Pending company registration final approval.

About Mitsubishi Corporation

Mitsubishi Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates business across virtually every industry including industrial finance, energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, foods, and environmental business. Mitsubishi Corporation's current activities are expanding far beyond its traditional trading operations as its diverse business ranges from natural resources development to investment in retail business, infrastructure, financial products and manufacturing of industrial goods. For more information on Mitsubishi Corporation, please visit the company's website at https://www.mitsubishicorp.com/jp/en/.

Contact:
Mitsubishi Corporation
Telephone: +81 3 3210 2171
Facsimile: +81 3 5252 7705

↧

Volta Finance Limited: Dividend Declaration

August 31, 2018, 2:00 am

≫ Next: MHPS to Transfer Entire Industrial-use Non-Reheat Thermal Power Facilities Business in Japan to MHPS-IDS

≪ Previous: Mitsubishi Corporation Announces Partnership with Fast Retailing to Develop UNIQLO Retail Business in Vietnam

Volta Finance Limited (VTA) - Dividend Declaration

St Peter Port, GUERNSEY, Aug 31, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Volta Finance Limited (the "Company") announces that it has declared a quarterly interim dividend of EUR0.15 per share payable in September 2018, amounting to EUR5.5 million. The ex-dividend date is 6 September 2018 with a record date of 7 September 2018 and a payment date of 27 September 2018.

The Company has arranged for its shareholders to be able to elect to receive their dividends in either Euros or Pounds Sterling. Shareholders will, by default, receive their dividends in Euros, unless they have instructed the Company's Registrar, Computershare Investor Services (Guernsey) Limited ("Computershare"), to pay dividends in Pounds Sterling. Such instructions may be given to Computershare either electronically via CREST or by using the Currency Election Form which will be posted to shareholders and a copy of which is also available on the website www.voltafinance.com within the "Investors - Other Documents" section. The deadline for receipt of currency elections is 12:00 (midday) on 10 September 2018.

As previously announced, the Company targets the payment of stable annual dividends payable on a quarterly basis, which it expects to pay towards the end of each March, June, September and December.

For further information, please contact:

Company Secretary and Portfolio Administrator
Sanne Group (Guernsey) Limited
voltafinance@sannegroup.com
+44 (0) 1481 739810

Corporate Broker
Cenkos Securities plc
Sapna Shah
Andrew Worne
+44 (0) 20 7397 8900

For the Investment Manager
AXA Investment Managers Paris
Serge Demay
serge.demay@axa-im.com
+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED
Legal Entity Identification code (LEI): 2138004N6QDNAZ2V3W80

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities. Volta's home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to regulation and supervision by the AFM, being the regulator for financial markets in the Netherlands.

Volta's investment objectives are to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. Volta seeks to attain its investment objectives predominantly through diversified investments in structured finance assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; and, automobile loans. The Company's approach to investment is through vehicles and arrangements that essentially provide leveraged exposure to portfolios of such underlying assets. The Company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with EUR717 billion in assets under management as of the end of December 2016. AXA IM employs approximately 2,420 people around the world.

Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

↧

MHPS to Transfer Entire Industrial-use Non-Reheat Thermal Power Facilities Business in Japan to MHPS-IDS

August 31, 2018, 5:09 am

≫ Next: HTSC Announces 2018 Interim Results

≪ Previous: Volta Finance Limited: Dividend Declaration

- Aim to Function as a Total Solutions Provider in a Highly Maneuverable and Adaptable Organization -

- Reorganization will strengthen responsiveness to industrial-use customers as the final repositioning of the industrial-use business (announced May 9, 2017).
- Allows combination with MHPS' AI and IoT technologies to provide customers with solutions as a corporate group.

TOKYO, Aug 31, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) has decided to transfer its entire industrial-use "non-reheat(1)" thermal power facilities (equipment that does not utilize a steam reheat cycle) business in Japan to Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Industries Co., Ltd. (MHPS-IDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of MHPS, based in Yokohama. The transfer will be conducted by means of an absorption-type company split agreement, effective January 1, 2019. The aim of this reorganization is to utilize the maneuverability of MHPS-IDS to provide industrial-use customers with solutions to resolve various issues.

Industrial-use thermal power facilities are comprised of boilers, turbine generators and other equipment that use fuel sources such as the gaseous byproducts from steel or chemical plants, petroleum residue from refineries, or liquid waste from paper mills. Many of these facilities have been in operation since Japan's period of rapid economic growth in the 1970s, and there are growing needs among customers with these systems to address a range of issues, including aging equipment, greater environmental consciousness, energy balance optimization, and the retirement of veteran workers. Also, in response to the global movement to cut CO2 emissions, there is growing demand for environmentally-friendly biomass thermal power facilities, of which construction plans are in progress.

In consideration of the circumstances, MHPS transferred the EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) function of its domestic small-to-medium sized industrial business for non-reheat thermal facilities to MHPS-IDS in FY3/18, forming a joint enterprise. Now, by expanding the scope of services handled by MHPS-IDS to also include sales and after-sales services, we are strengthening our capabilities to provide rapid coordination and a total solutions function in order to accurately assess customers' needs.

MHPS is pursuing digital solutions such as MHPS-TOMONI, which utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of resolving energy-related issues, as well as solutions combining various types of equipment and new technologies related to thermal power facilities. Even after the business transfer, MHPS-IDS will function as a total solutions provider within the MHPS Group to help resolve various problems for customers with industrial-use thermal power facilities.

(1) The non-reheat cycle is a system in contrast with a reheat cycle. A reheat cycle is a system that reheats the steam emitted from a high-pressure turbine in a boiler and sends it to a mid-to-low pressure turbine, while a non-reheat cycle is a system with no reheating. Industrial-use cogeneration systems burn diverse types of fuel, and utilize the steam and heat generated for production processes. Non-reheat cycle thermal power facilities are often used in these systems owing to their high economic efficiency and environmental benefits.

About Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) was formed on February 1 2014, integrating the thermal power generation systems businesses of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Hitachi, Ltd. in a quest to further enhance their social response capabilities in all respects. These include the technological strength to create new products of outstanding quality and reliability, the comprehensive strength in engineering to oversee projects in regions across the globe, and finely honed sales and after-sale servicing capabilities. MHPS aims to come out a winner in global competition and achieve a solid position as a world leader in thermal power generation systems and environmental technologies. For more information, please visit www.mhps.com.

Contact:
Corporate Communication Department
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Email: mediacontact_global@mhi.co.jp
Tel: +81-(0)3-6716-2168
Fax: +81-(0)3-6716-5860

↧

HTSC Announces 2018 Interim Results

August 31, 2018, 5:13 am

≫ Next: New-Economy Enterprises Listing Booms Again; China's Largest Online Home Renovation Platform Tubatu Files Its A1 Application

≪ Previous: MHPS to Transfer Entire Industrial-use Non-Reheat Thermal Power Facilities Business in Japan to MHPS-IDS

HTSC reported net profit increase
with top-tier performance across various businesses

HONG KONG, Aug 31, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - HTSC (the "Company"; stock code: 6886) is pleased to release its interim report for 2018, with total revenue and other income reaching RMB11.98 billion. The profit for the period attributable to the shareholders of the Company amounted to RMB3.16 billion, up by 5.53% year-on-year. Despite unfavorable market environment, HTSC continued to accelerate transformation of wealth management business, and maintain strong momentum in all businesses with solid increase in operating performance.

Retail Business Continuously Pioneering the Industry

As the commission rate for stock and fund trading of securities firms continued to decline, the traditional profitability and operation models were facing unprecedented challenges. Adhering to its customer-centered focus, HTSC consistently expanded its customer base and assets under management, and deepened its footprints in progressive transformation of wealth management business.

During the first half of 2018, HTSC reached over 12 million customers, with client assets exceeding RMB2.91 trillion. According to statistics from Securities Association of China, the Company's stock and fund trading volume during the reporting period totaled RMB7.58 trillion, ranking first in the industry since 2014.

HTSC made enormous efforts in building investment advisor team and exploring business model. According to statistics from Securities Association of China, by the end of the reporting period, the number of investment advisors accounted for 27.56% of the Company's securities practitioners, a ratio that leads the industry.

HTSC's wealth management APP "ZhangLe Fortune Path" continued to take the lead in the industry with cumulative downloads of over 41.96 million times. According to the statistics of Analysys, its average monthly active users were over 6.36 million in the first half of 2018, ranking first among all the APPs of securities firms. "ZhangLe Fortune Path" has been successfully optimizing its customer experience by modernizing digital systems and launching new features in the past months, such as ZhangLe U Membership, Position Perspective, Intelligent Real-time Account 3.0, and etc.

Investment Banking Strengthening its Leadership Position

With China's capital market further opening up and regulators imposing stricter rules in the past six months, the market concentration of institutional services business has increased significantly and the leading securities firms have gained more competitive advantages. The Company continued to implement the whole business chain strategy by means of improving the integrated operation system of large investment banking centering on customers, thereby strengthening the market position and brand effect in the investment banking business.

During the reporting period, the number of mergers, acquisitions, and restructuring deals approved by the reorganization committee reported 8 and the transaction volume totaled RMB70.45 billion, both ranking first in the industry. Huatai United Securities assisted 360 Security Technology Inc. in completing its US stock privatization, which was the largest restructuring and listing project in terms of transaction volume. A number of highlights also include Huatai United Securities acting as an exclusive financial advisor for Baidu Financial Services Group's spin-off, and an exclusive sponsor and joint underwriter for Wuxi AppTec's A-share listing.

The brand influence of equity underwriting business has been elevated by a number of landmark transactions. According to WIND, the Company's lead equity underwriting amount (including initial public offering, follow-on offering, rights issue, preferred shares, convertible bonds and exchangeable bonds) reached RMB82.95 billion, ranking third in the industry. HTSC's bond underwriting business made its steady progress according to WIND, with lead bond underwriting projects amounting to RMB83.95 billion in volume, ranking seventh in the industry.

ABS New Issuance Volume Topping the Industry

Since the beginning of 2018, asset management business has continued to dechannelize process and expedite the popularity of net-asset-value typed products. Huatai Asset Management focused on the core value of asset management to provide comprehensive full life cycle services and solutions to fulfill customers' goals and needs.

According to the statistics from Asset Management Association of China, by the end of the second quarter of 2018, the average monthly AUM of the Company was RMB 922.85 billion, ranking second place in the industry. The average monthly active AUM was RMB226.68 billion, ranking fourth in the industry.

HTSC maintained a differentiated competitive advantage in ABS business. According to WIND, the Company's ABS new issuance scale in the first half of 2018 exceeded RMB37.06 billion, ranking first in the industry. HTSC also issued the very first US dollar-denominated aircraft leasing ABS in China.

International Business Contributed to 12% of HTSC's Revenue

The two-way opening up of capital markets has accelerated the internationalization of securities firms. During the reporting period, international business reached RMB1.5 billion, contributing to 12.53% of HTSC's total revenue and effectively enhancing HTSC's market influence worldwide.

In the first half of 2018, Huatai International Financial Holdings Co., Ltd. has achieved remarkable results in cross-border merger and acquisition. With a completion of multiple IPO deals, Huatai International successfully raised a total of HKD14.4 billion and won the third place in terms of both the number of IPO sponsorships and the total fund-raising volume in Hong Kong in the first half of 2018, according to data by Dealogic.

AssetMark, the turnkey asset management platform (TAMP), acquired by HTSC in 2016 has delivered a compelling performance during the reporting period. Total AUM under AssetMark platform reported USD45.27 billion, up by approximately 6.8% as compared with year-end 2017. The platform served 7,300 independent investment advisers and over 218,000 terminal accounts.

By the end of the first quarter of 2018, the market share of AssetMark in TAMP industry was 9.7%, ranking third in the industry according to Cerulli Associates Inc. and other public information. Riding on the acquisition of AssetMark, HTSC facilitated the improvement of its investment advisor platform and service efficiency.

In terms of IT development, the Company vigorously promoted the transformation from technology-backed service to technology-driven business development. During the reporting period, the Company's IT staffs accounted for 7.47% of the total, dedicating to various launches and upgrades in advanced business systems and service platforms. Ongoing technology investment and development will continue to reshape HTSC's business and support further growth.

* The financial information included in this press release has been compiled in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB")

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New-Economy Enterprises Listing Booms Again; China's Largest Online Home Renovation Platform Tubatu Files Its A1 Application

August 30, 2018, 10:00 pm

≫ Next: Hingtex Holdings Limited Announces 2018 Interim Results

≪ Previous: HTSC Announces 2018 Interim Results

Source: iResearch

HONG KONG, Aug 31, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Investment highlights:

- Tubatu is the first company that has realized profit in the industry, with the adjusted net profit of RMB63.50 million in 2017
- In terms of MUV, GMV, transaction value and platform revenue, Tubatu ranks No. 1 in the industry and is far ahead of its peers
- While favored repeatedly by top VC/PE firms such as Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital in the pre-IPO rounds of investment, Tubatu also received the strategic investment from WUBA (58.com), which is win-win cooperation

As one of the top 3 financial centers in the world, Hong Kong's capital market becomes increasingly important to mainland China. According to the statistics, there were nearly 1,000 mainland enterprises listed in Hong Kong at the end of December 2017, with a total market capitalization of approximately US$3 trillion, accounting for approximately 66% of the total market capitalization.

IPO surge in Hong Kong's capital market sets China's third Internet listing boom off

Hong Kong's capital market sees IPO surge this year. According to the information disclosed by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited ("HKEX"), Hong Kong saw 135 IPOs completed from January to July 2018, hitting a new record high in the Hong Kong market with year-on-year growth of 40 or 42% from 95 in the same period last year. There were 75 new listings on the Main Board and 60 on GEM, as compared with 44 and 51 in the same period last year respectively.

Total Number of IPOs in Hong Kong's Capital Market
From January to July 2018 From January to July 2017 From January to December 2017
Hong Kong Main Board 75 44 81
- IPO 72 44 80
- Listing by Introduction 3 0 1
GEM 60 51 80
Total 135 95 161

Source: HKEX

The most iconic issuer in the IPO boom is Xiaomi Group (01810.HK), the first company listed in Hong Kong with "weighted voting rights" (WVR) structures on July 9 and total proceeds of HK$42,611 million. It is the world's fourth largest tech IPO after Alibaba, Facebook and Infineon.

After Alibaba decided to list its shares on the U.S. stock market in 2014, Charles Li Xiaojia, Chief Executive of HKEX, responded that, "We feel proud of Hong Kong as we ensure that our rule of law remain intact.". What Li Xiaojia had said then was the fact that the bourse rejected Alibaba's listing application due to its adherence to the "one share, one vote" principle. Unexpectedly, the development has turned a 180-degree reversal out this year. HKEX issued new rules on IPOs on April 24, 2018 to permit listings of biotech companies without profit and new-economy companies with dual share class (weighted voting rights) structures in Hong Kong, which formally came into effect on April 30. Since then, Hong Kong's capital market has set the "third Internet listing boom" off in China. In particular, July 12 marked the most spectacular day when five of the eight companies going public on HKEX had new-economy business models.

The listing boom of Chinese Internet Companies
Time Representative Companies Listing place
The first listing boom of Chinese Internet Companies 2000 NetEase, Sohu, Shanda and Baidu US
The second listing boom of Chinese Internet Companies 2014 Alibaba and JD US
The third listing boom of Chinese Internet Companies 2018 Xiaomi, Liepin, Ping An Good Doctor and E-house Hong Kong

HKEX launches listing regime for companies from emerging and innovative industries

After recognizing the reality of missing opportunities of having new-economy companies such as Alibaba listed in Hong Kong, HKEX has made the most significant reform in its listing rules. After the release of its conclusions on the New Board Concept Paper on December 15, 2017, HKEX published the Consultation Paper on a Listing Regime for Companies from Emerging and Innovative Sectors on 23 February 2018, and issued new rules on IPOs on April 24, 2018, to permit biotech companies without profit and new-economy companies with dual share class (weighted voting rights) structures in Hong Kong.

Listing Regime for Companies from Emerging and Innovative Industries
Formulation Formulation Optimization
New listing rules New chapter on Biotech companies New chapter on different vote rights Related to the secondary listing rules
Applicable companies Companies without revenue Companies with unconventional governance structure Mainland and international companies

Thus, Xiaomi managed to be the first company listed in Hong Kong with weighted voting rights(WVR) structures on July 9. 8 biotech companies without profit or even revenue, had officially submitted their IPO application in Hong Kong as of July 20. On 1 August, Ascletis Pharma Inc., the first biotechnology company without profit listed in Hong Kong, officially had its trading debut on HKEX with a market capitalization of approximately HK$16 billion.

The reason why the "one share, one vote" system becomes the biggest obstacle for mainland emerging Internet tech companies to go public in Hong Kong is that they had relied on continuous venture capital financing to grow rapidly and the founder's percentage of equity interest will inevitably suffer a significant dilution. Taking Xiaomi as an example. Before its listing in Hong Kong, Xiaomi Group had experienced 9 rounds of financing and Lei Jun, the founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, only held 31.41% equity interest. After the AB dual-class share structure, each A share can have 10 votes, while each B share can have 1 vote. Hence, Lei Jun's voting rights ratio exceeds 50%, becoming the controlling shareholder of Xiaomi Group. The WVR system can guarantee the founder's control over the enterprise.

Tubatu: China's largest and best online home renovation platform files an A1 application; Expected to list in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter of this year

After a wave of listing of Chinese outstanding Internet companies in July, Tubatu, China's largest and most active online home renovation platform and ecosystem, has recently submitted its A1 application to HKEX under the sole sponsorship of Citibank, a world-renowned investment bank.

Established in 2008, Tubatu's mission is "to leverage technologies to improve home living". Tubatu has been the largest online home renovation platform in China by gross merchandise value or GMV, transaction value and platform revenue in each of 2015, 2016 and 2017 and the six months ended June 30, 2018, according to iResearch. Tubatu is also the most active and dynamic online home renovation ecosystem in China by the number of service providers and content richness as of June 30, 2018, and average monthly unique visitors or average MUV in the six months ended June 30, 2018, according to iResearch.

An energetic and dynamic ecosystem has evolved around Tubatu's platform as illustrated in the diagram below:

For the home renovation industry in China, Tubatu's innovative platform has significantly improved the business efficiency and transparency of the home renovation market and helped restore the trust between homeowners and home renovation contractors in China. Meanwhile, Tubatu's ecosystem has unique value propositions for each of its participants.

- Value to users: Tubatu is committed to becoming the trusted internet home renovation platform for every family in China. The one-stop home renovation solution provides convenience, cost-saving, transparency and security to homeowners. By utilizing the platform, users of the Company are able to initiate home renovation or interior design requests and obtain fee quotes with ease and fewer costs via the internet. Users have access to updated and rich contents relating to home renovation and interior design provided through our online platform. Tubatu's industry leading user review and rating system gives users transparency and comfort they need in choosing service providers to perform their orders. Additionally, users can benefit from the mandatory escrow services and utilize the inspection managers for quality inspection to ensure quality of the home renovation work despite any lack of relevant knowledge or experience.

- Value to service providers: Tubatu aims to build an enabling platform that encourages service providers' entrepreneurship and innovations around home living with aesthetics, well-being, technology and happiness. Tubatu's SaaS-based information infrastructure assists service providers to digitize their operations, improve their customer acquisition and operational efficiency, reduce operating costs and find stable financing. Taking advantage of the database and intelligent matching system, Tubatu matches service providers with users at a high success rate, therefore enabling them to acquire customers and build reputation more efficiently than before joining our ecosystem. Tubatu's escrow services give comfort to service providers with respect to the homeowners' ability to pay for their work. Service providers can also benefit from the supply chain financing services offered through the platform to meet their working capital needs. They can also take advantage of the SaaS-based solutions, such as CRM, project management and supply chain management systems, to better understand and serve the needs of users.

Due to its unique commercial value, Tubatu has been highly recognized by venture capital firms since its establishment, and has continuously obtained investments from well-known investment institutions, such as Matrix Partners and Sequoia Capital China, as well as 58.com, China's leading housing information platform. It is worth noting that the top venture capital, Matrix Partners, participated in all series A, B and C pre-IPO investment since 2011. As the company's earliest investor, it is also the institutional investor that knew the Company best, whose confidence is really rare. Sequoia Capital, a well-known PE institution, that is always selective in investment, has continued to raise its investment in the follow-up series C financing after the first participation in series B, and has once again cast a trust poll in the company's business development. 58.com, whose major shareholder is Tencent, has taken a strategic stake in the series C investment, and its win-win cooperation with Tubatu will bring promising prospects for resource sharing and coordinated development.

Until December 2017, Tubatu had been the leading platform in the industry in terms of users by statistics provided by third-party statistic institutions such as iResearch and Analysys. As of June 30, 2018, Tubatu's online platform had coverage across 307 cities in China, and had approximately 84,500 contractors, 1.1 million designers, and 1,290 suppliers, and cumulatively served 26.30 million users, which had become the NO. 1 choice for Chinese people in home renovation.

China's flourishing online home renovation market and its pain points and solutions

According to iResearch, from 2012 to 2017, the market size of China's interior design and construction services industry by revenue increased from RMB1.34 trillion to RMB2.1 trillion, representing a CAGR of 9.4%. Due to the growth in urbanization rate, population migration, and the promising prospects of the housing leasing market, the market size by revenue is expected to reach RMB2.62 trillion in 2020, with a CAGR of 7.7% from 2017 to 2022.

According to iResearch, China's online penetration of home renovation services by GMV has grown from 2.4% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2017, which is expected to increase to 16.9% in 2020.

The market size of China's online home renovation by transaction value increased from RMB2.70 billion in 2012 to RMB16.63 billion in 2017, representing a CAGR of approximately 44%. In view of the low penetration rate in 2017, the market obviously showed high growth potential. It is expected the market will grows rapidly to RMB54.21 billion by 2020, representing a CAGR of 48.3%.

In 2017, Tubatu was the largest player by GMV in the PRC online home renovation market, with a market share of 37.5%, according to iResearch. During the same year, Tubatu was the largest player by transaction value in the online home renovation industry, with a market share of 18.8%. The following graphs illustrate the competitive landscape of the online home renovation market in China in 2017:

As the graphs shown, in 2017, Tubatu had the largest online platform revenue of approximately RMB410 million, followed by its closest competitor with a platform revenue of approximately RMB190 million.

Backed by a huge home renovation market of RMB2.1 trillion, the online home renovation market is growing at a CAGR of 44%-48%. At present, the first pain point for home owners is asymmetrical information. The cost of communication and decision-making between homeowners and contractors is quite high. Users worry about choosing the wrong contractor, being cheated or malicious additions, which showed serious trust problems. Secondly, users' funds are not safe because their contractors may run away. The third pain point is quality control. It is difficult to control the workers at the user end, which will cause many problems, such as project delays.

Can Tubatu's online home renovation platform model solve the pain points of home renovation above? Let's have a look at the solutions provided by China's largest and most active online home renovation platform and ecosystem.

1. First of all, Tubatu solves the pain point of asymmetrical information by changing the connection mode between various roles of the home renovation industry. Tubatu solves the problem through matching transaction system provided by the platform and the "cloud word-of-mouth system" similar to Ali Taobao, which has created trust space for contractors and users and reduced users' decision-making cost of choosing home renovation. It is also unnecessary for contractors to acquire customers through telephone marketing or community visits. Thus, it changes the original connection mode of the industry.

2. Tubatu changes the transaction mode. Based on its online home renovation platform, Tubatu has launched the Zhuangxiubao escrow services, known as "Alipay in Home Renovation Industry", and quality inspection manager services. In order to help solve the capital chain difficulties of the industry, Tubatu has initiated supply chain financial services with third-party financial institutions, which solves the problem of capital security during the transaction process of the contractors and the cash flow issue in the construction management and operation process of contactors, thus changing the original transaction mode of the industry.

3. Tubatu also changes the production mode, in the respect of supply chain empowerment, big data, SaaS and education and training.

Tubatu is the largest and true online home renovation platform in the industry

The solutions above provided by Tubatu to solve pain points of the industry have enhanced the efficiency of the industry and reduced the cost. We can see that these changes can only be made by enterprises with platform model because only the platform model will promote the development of the industry from the perspective of the whole industry chain.

As the largest online home renovation platform in the industry, Tubatu derives most of its revenue from the platform business, which is truly developed around the platform model. Tubatu's platform can provide infrastructures, enable transactions, and reduce intermediate links, which help improve the efficiency of the industry. At present, only Tubatu has met these three points at the same time in the industry.

Trustdata has released the "2018 Q1 China Mobile Internet Industry Development Report". As shown in the figure above, the market share of Tubatu was 37%, and its monthly active users (MAU) accounted for 32.6%, ranking No. 1 in the industry.

Even more remarkably, Tubatu realized meaningful profit As shown in the table below, Tubatu's adjusted net profit was RMB63.50million in 2017, and it realized c.100% growth for the first half of 2018, from RMB10.9 million in the same period in 2017 to RMB21 million.

While many other online home renovation enterprises are still loss making, we have confidence that Tubatu, which is the first to realize profit, is best positioned for the fierce competition in the industry with the strong support from its top pre-IPO investors. The market is looking forward to Tubatu's IPO in Hong Kong this year.

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Hingtex Holdings Limited Announces 2018 Interim Results

August 30, 2018, 11:14 pm

≫ Next: Eisai Receives Approval for Partial Label Change for Vascular Embolization Device DC Bead

≪ Previous: New-Economy Enterprises Listing Booms Again; China's Largest Online Home Renovation Platform Tubatu Files Its A1 Application

Proactively Enhances Production Capacity and Efficiency
Poised to Capture Growing Demand for Denim Fabric

HONG KONG, Aug 31, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Hingtex Holdings Limited ("Hingtex" or the "Group"; Stock Code: 1968), a long-standing and leading denim fabric manufacturer in Hong Kong targeting the middle- to high-end market segment, today announced its results for the six months ended 30 June 2018 (the "review period"), representing its first results announcement since listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ("SEHK") in July 2018.

Although the growing trade tensions between the United States and the People's Republic of China have been worrisome, the Group was relatively unaffected during the review period, with revenue remaining stable at HK$383.2 million (1H2017: HK$379.4 million). Despite a general increase in the price of materials and rise in staff cost, gross profit margin remained stable at 32.3% (1H2017: 32.5%), while gross profit was approximately HK$123.8 million (1H2017: HK$123.4 million). Excluding the impact of the one-off listing expenses of HK$13.3 million that were recognised during the six months ended 30 June 2018 and the non-recurring imputed interest income on amounts due from related companies of HK$10.2 million recognised during the corresponding period in 2017, profit attributable to owners of the Company would have decreased by approximately 0.5% to HK$70.7 million (1H2017: HK$71.1 million).

Business Review
Hingtex specialises in the manufacturing of stretchable denim fabrics with various properties and its product development team has introduced over 300 types of stretchable blended denim fabrics over the past three years, amongst which, the Group's key product, stretchable blended denim fabrics, are made from stretchable synthetic yarn (stretchable fibre wrapped with synthetic fibres) and pure cotton yarn. During the review period, the stretchable blended denim fabrics segment contributed revenue of HK$344.8 million, representing a YoY increase of 12.9%, and accounted for approximately 90.0% of the Group's total revenue (1H2017: 80.5%).

Stretchable cotton denim fabrics are made from stretchable cotton yarn (stretchable fibre wrapped with cotton) and pure cotton yarn. This business segment generated revenue of HK$26.7 million (1H2017: HK$52.7 million) due to the Group's strategic focus on the sale of stretchable blended denim fabrics.

Non-stretchable denim fabrics are made entirely from cotton yarn. Segmental revenue was HK$10.1 million for the review period (1H2017: HK$21.0 million). The result highlights the increasing acceptance of stretchable denim garments by the general public (especially menswear), resulting in lower demand for non-stretchable denim fabrics.

Prospects
To seize opportunities and achieve long-term growth, Hingtex will strive to strengthen its leading position in the denim fabric manufacturing industry. Apart from securing orders from existing customers, Hingtex plans to broaden its customer base by penetrating the China market and expanding into the European market. The Group will also seek to raise production capacity and efficiency, as well as adjust the composition of raw materials used and optimise the production processes involved.

In addition, the Group will be strengthening its product development capability by purchasing dyeing and finishing machines. Such machinery are expected to be ready for installation and operation by the second half of 2019, and will enable the Group to be better equipped to develop new denim fabric items for expanding its product portfolio, as well as enjoy greater economies of scale. While such developments are proceeding, the Group will also pay close attention to the Sino-US trade war that has resulted in greater downside risks, and will make necessary adjustments to its logistics procedures if needed.

About Hingtex Holdings Limited
Founded in 1981, Hingtex is an established denim fabric manufacturer that specialises in design, manufacture and sales of denim fabrics, targeting middle- to high-end market segment. With longstanding relationship with over 30 apparel brands and over 120 customers, the Group primarily supplies denim fabrics for the production of denim garmet of certain reputable US apparel brands. The Group has rich experience in manufacturing a variety of denim fabrics including (i) stretchable blended, (ii) stretchable cotton and (iii) non-stretchable denim fabrics; and would present denim fabrics in the form of garment end-products such as denim jeans, jackets and skirts. Its design and product development capability have been widely recognised by its customers. For more details about Hingtex, please visit the Group's website: www.hwtextiles.com.hk

Media Enquiries:
Strategic Financial Relations Limited
Vicky Lee Tel: (852) 2864 4834 Email: vicky.lee@sprg.com.hk
Jessica Siu Tel: (852) 2114 2820 Email: jessica.siu@sprg.com.hk
Suzanne Leung Tel: (852) 2864 4873 Email: suzanne.leung@sprg.com.hk
Website: www.sprg.com.hk

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Eisai Receives Approval for Partial Label Change for Vascular Embolization Device DC Bead

September 2, 2018, 7:50 pm

≫ Next: NEGTEC launches Crowdfunding Portal promoting Regenerative Medicine

≪ Previous: Hingtex Holdings Limited Announces 2018 Interim Results

TOKYO, Sep 3, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. announced that it has received approval for a partial label change for the vascular embolization device DC Bead (specially controlled medical device) in Japan. The product is to be used for transcatheter arterial embolization in patients with hypervascular tumors (excluding uterine fibroids).

In real-world clinical settings, it was found that DC Bead was not being used in the treatment of uterine fibroids and arteriovenous malformations. Following confirmation at related academic associations and subsequent consultation with the regulatory authority, an application for a partial label change for the relevant indication was submitted, upon which this approval is based.

With the partial label change for DC Bead, Eisai is striving to ensure that accurate information is provided to healthcare professionals.

About Eisai

Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as "giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides," which we call our human health care (hhc) philosophy. With approximately 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realize our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products to address unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Neurology and Oncology.

Leveraging the experience gained from the development and marketing of Aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, Eisai has been working to establish a social environment that involves patients in each community in cooperation with various stakeholders including the government, healthcare professionals and care workers, and is estimated to have held over ten thousand dementia awareness events worldwide. As a pioneer in the field of dementia treatment, Eisai is striving to not only develop next generation treatments but also to develop diagnosis methods and provide solutions.

For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit https://www.eisai.com.

Contact:
Public Relations Department,
Eisai Co., Ltd.
+81-3-3817-5120

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