6 Aug 2007 07:00
6 August 2007GEONG International Limited("GEONG" or "the Company")AGM Statement
* Expect to exceed market expectations
At the AGM being held this morning of GEONG International Limited (AIM: GNG), the Beijing based, provider of content management software and solutions, the Chairman, Henry Tse, will make the following statement:
"I am pleased to announce that trading for the first four months since the year end has been particularly strong and that the Company expects to report significant growth over the remainder of the year.
The current and expected growth is partly as a result of the additional funds raised at the time of the share placing in June. These funds are enabling us to continue the development of our sales and marketing channels and also to accelerate the roll out of our award winning PortalAge and SmartBox related products.
SmartBox
Sales of the full version of SmartBox, which is aimed at SMEs, have continued to grow through both our conventional sales channels and by winning contracts to supply organisations directly.
There are two contracts of particular note in relation to SmartBox I would like to mention. The first, worth US$70,000, is with Beijing Jingzhou Logistic Company and is to increase the number of users they have and add new solution modules. The second contract, worth US$68,000, is with Guangzhou Hongfeng Group and is to provide SmartBox to their headquarters and five subsidiary offices.
With typical orders for our SmartBox product being in the region of US$5,000, winning contracts of this size signifies the potential to grow SmartBox in installed accounts. As the SmartBox customer base builds, so will the full market potential of this product.
SmartExpress
SmartExpress is the entry level product of the SmartBox product family. As part of the development of our sales strategy, in June we launched a three year "Loyalty Programme" for SmartExpress (which was formerly called SmartBox Express). This is aimed at very small businesses (VSBs).
The Loyalty Programme is structured such that VSBs pay a minimal initial fee per user in the first year and then pay double that amount for the second and third year. The aim of this programme is to allow quick penetration into the VSB market by providing a low cost, basic, ECM solution, which can be upgraded or added to at a later date.
We believe that by stimulating the adoption of our products by very small businesses, we will benefit as these companies grow and upgrade/migrate to the full version of SmartBox. Additionally, by structuring the licence fee for our product in this way, we become far more accessible to businesses and ensure recurring revenues of twice first year sales in the second and third years.
So far the Loyalty Programme has been launched in two cities, Beijing and Shijiazhuang in the Hebei Province, and the level of uptake has been very promising. To date, we have provided over 17,500 user seats to 875 SMEs and we are expecting sales of this product to accelerate over the coming months as we extend the Loyalty Programme to further locations.
PortalAge
In addition to the growth opportunities provided by the additional funding from the share placing, we continue to maintain very high levels of quality in relation to the services, products and solutions we provide. With regard to our PortalAge system this is reflected in a number of new contract wins since the year end.
We announced in July, that we had been awarded a contract in partnership with Oracle China, to deliver the fourth phase of Shanghai General Motors' Dealer Management System which is based upon the GEONG PortalAge infrastructure that we originally designed and installed in 2005.
As I said at the time of that announcement, being involved in the fourth phase of Shanghai General Motors' DMS programme is testament to the scalable and adaptable nature of GEONG's PortalAge products and solutions and the continued high levels of quality and service we pride ourselves in providing. Partnering with the likes of Oracle means we are able to provide quality solutions and services to large organisations, whilst retaining the innovativeness and flexibility that being a much smaller company brings.
This approach and the belief that our larger partners have in GEONG is further highlighted by the fact that today, I can announce that GEONG has been awarded core supplier status by Huawei-3COM for the second year running. As a result, GEONG will continue to work with Huawei-3COM on a number of projects, based upon our PortalAge solution, and we expect the contract to be worth up to US$350,000 in the current financial year.
In addition, I can also announce two further contracts relating to our PortalAge solution.
The first contract is an annual agreement with the Bank of Communications to provide support for the PortalAge related system GEONG has developed for them over the past four years. This contract is worth US$400,000 in the current financial year. The second contract is with the China Bond Company and is also worth US$400,000. This contract is to provide a PortalAge based solution to improve their Web-based customer service system.
Alliance Agreements During the period we have signed two Alliance Agreements which are aimed at enriching our solutions offering.
The first of these is a Master Territory Agreement with Responsetek Networks Corporation which is a world leading Customer Experience Management (CEM) provider. Together we are providing a value-added CEM solution, based upon the PortalAge platform, to our joint and separate clients who are sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The second Alliance Agreement is with Unistrength Consulting Company, is a leading risk management consulting company in China. We are working together to research, develop and promote internal control solutions based on the PortalAge platform.
Other sales and marketing strategies, for both our PortalAge and SmartBox product range across China and, internationally through GEONG's Canadian representative office, are also currently being developed and we will update the market on these developments when appropriate.
In conclusion, the successes we have had to date, the activities we are undertaking, the continuing opportunities we are facing, the positive signs within our market and the additional funding from the share placing, which will help us to accelerate our growth plans, mean that we expect to be ahead of current market expectations for the full year to 31 March 2008."
- ENDS- Enquiries:Henry Tse, Chairman www.geong.com Weidong Wang, CEO
GEONG International Limited Tel: +86 10 877 30066 Paul Dulieu / Emma Kane / Tom Newman Redleaf Communications Ltd Tel: +44 (0)20 7822 0200 John Depesquale / Parimal Kumar Seymour Pierce Limited Tel: +44 (0)20 7107 8000
Notes to Editors
About GEONGInternational Limited
* GEONG is registered in Jersey and headquartered in Beijing. Its shares were
admitted to AIM in June 2006 and trade under the ticker GNG.L
* The Company has provided content management software and solutions since
its establishment in September 2000 and has earned a reputation as a local
technology leader in the Chinese Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
market, especially in the financial services industry.
* ECM software is an internet based suite of products that enables companies
to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver content, documents and data
across thousands of users, processes and locations.
* The Company has developed two proprietary product ranges: the PortalAgeTM
suite designed for large enterprise customers and SmartBoxTM designed to
capture the SME market's requirement for collaboration software.
* PortalAgeTM clients include: Lenovo, Bank of Communications, China
Construction Bank, FAW Volkswagen, Shanghai Automotive Industry
Corporation, Shanghai General Motors and Air China.
* In March 2007, the Company established a Canadian representative office in
order to commence the international promotion of SmartBoxTM.
* In 2006, GEONG was recognised for the second successive year in the
Deloitte "Technology Fast 50 China 2006" and the "Technology Fast 500 Asia
Pacific 2006", which recognises the fastest growing technology companies in
China and in Asia Pacific respectively.
GEONG INTERNATIONAL LIMITED