David Hampstead, CEO at Samarkand Group (AQSE:SMK), the UK based AQSE-listed China ecommerce specialist, gave a presentation and took questions at our London South East/Aquis Stock Exchange Special, along with four other CEO's - from Valereum Blockchain (AQSE:VLRM), Sativa Wellness (AQSE:SWEL), Semper Fortis (AQSE:SEMP), and introduced by Alasdair Haynes the CEO of Aquis Exchange (AQSE:AQX). (8.06.2021).

Launched in 2016, Samarkand has its own Nomad technology platform which allows small and medium brands in the UK to sell with confidence into China, the world's single largest ecommerce market, allowing Chinese buyers to pay and receive goods using familiar Chinese payment mechanisms and distributors.

Samarkand Group SMK currently has a market cap of around 92M and has just opened an office in Tokyo, where it will use a Japanese version of Nomad to allow Chinese consumers to buy Japanese goods. Covid restrictions have meant less travel between Japan and China and Japan is the second largest market for Chinese consumers. Samarkand already has offices in London and Shanghai with around 100 employees in both the UK and China.

Samarkand floated on the AQSE Growth Market Apex segment in March and raised 17M, much of it from institutions. Already SMK have bought a baby nutritional health brand and sold a 5% share stake, a strategic investment, to China's leading logistics company SF Express for 3.1M.