Ascential Regulatory News (ASCL)

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12 October 2017

Ascential plc

Money20/20 to launch in China

Hangzhou to host first China edition of the leading payments and fintech event in 2018

London: Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L), the global business-to-business information company, announces that its Chief Executive Duncan Painter has personally signed today in China alongside Xie Shuang Cheng, Vice Mayor of Hangzhou and Gu Chun Xiao, Deputy Warden of Xiaoshan, a long-term partnership agreements with the city of Hangzhou and the district of Xiaoshan to run a new edition of its highly successful Money20/20 event series. The new event called Money20/20 China will be held in November 2018 at the Hangzhou International Expo Center, the venue where the 2016 G20 Summit was hosted.

Tracey Davies, President, Money20/20, cited "China's unique market and domestic appetite to both invent and embrace new fintech products" as the reason to launch this new edition of the leading payments and fintech event, adding that "The rise of fintech in China is something that no one in this industry can ignore."

Money20/20 brings together visionaries and innovators from across the entire spectrum of payments, fintech and financial services to connect and create the future of money. Already boasting US, European and pan-Asian editions, Money20/20 offers participants unparalleled networking opportunities and a high-profile agenda, all of which underpins Money20/20's mission to create a simpler, fairer, faster financial world for business and society.

The host city of Hangzhou, in China's Zhejiang Province, has been chosen based on its long-term commitment to the future of finance. President Xi commented on its advanced commercial development at the Business 20 (B20) summit in Hangzhou last year, saying "just click the mouse in Hangzhou, and you connect the whole world."  Hangzhou is also home to such financial innovators as Alibaba and LianLian Group to name a few. Cashless, environmentally designed and home to a new wave of China's internet entrepreneurs, Hangzhou will provide the perfect, long-term home for Money20/20 China.

Commenting on the launch in China, Davies said, "Thanks to the formidable speed, skill and scale of China's inventiveness in fintech, China is often the country innovators look to for inspiration. It represents the largest fintech investment market in the world and at Money20/20 China, companies from China and international markets will have an unprecedented opportunity to learn about what makes China's fintech industry so forward-looking and progressive."

The launch of Money20/20 in China is being widely supported by prestigious partners including Ant Financial, Baidu Finance, IDG Capital Partners, LianLian Pay, Phoenix Finance, Tencent WeChat Pay, Union Mobile Financial, as well as other key players from the industry. Support also comes from associations that include the Payments and Clearing Association of China, Zhejiang Association of Internet Finance and the Zhejiang Association of Banks.

ENDS

About Money20/20:

Founded in 2011, Money20/20 creates destination events where the most innovative people in payments, fintech and the broader financial services industry connect. Famed for their high-impact networking, the Las Vegas (October) and Amsterdam (June) editions are widely considered unmissable by the industry they serve. The new Asian edition will debut in Singapore in March 2018. Money20/20 is the space where the industry's smartest visionaries and innovators come together to create the future of money.

Money20/20 is an Ascential event. www.money2020.com

About Ascential plc:

Ascential is a global business-to-business information company that informs and connects the business world in 150 countries through market-leading Exhibitions & Festivals and Information Services.

Ascential powers the prestigious Cannes Lions festival for the branded communications industry, the world's premier payments and financial services congress Money20/20, Spring Fair/Autumn Fair, the global trend forecasting service WGSN, environmental risk data business Groundsure, e-commerce analytics provider One Click Retail and MediaLink, the strategic advisory and business services firm.

Ascential's premium products enable focus, growth and value. The company provides customers with world class content and connections empowering their businesses to be the best informed and best connected.

www.ascential.com