Beijing, China - September 23, 2000 - Founder Holdings Limited (SEHK: 418), one of the giants leading China's IT industry, together with Softbank Finance Corporation, the world-renowned venture capital investor, today held a signing ceremony in the People's Hall, Beijing, China, formally contracting Softbank's investment in Founder Holdings. The contracted amount for Softbank's capital injection into Founder (Japan) Inc., one of Founder Holdings' subsidiaries, is 10 million US dollars. Softbank, therefore, acquires around 17% of the total shares of Founder (Japan) Inc. The same ceremony saw another agreement for long-term cooperation reached by Softbank and Peking University Founder Group.
Ever since the incorporation of Founder (HK) Limited (now headquartering Founder's overseas development), one of the development strategies of Founder Holdings is to enter and to gradually expand on the international market. With its sheer technological advantage in the digitalisation of the Chinese characters and other related languages, Founder Holdings business development in Japan has long been eyed with great interest by many investing firms. Among them, there is Softbank, the world-famous venture capital investing giant. After rounds of talks and after the evaluation of the present achievement and the future business plan on the part of Founder (Japan) Inc. done by several technology investment funds under Softbank, it was decided that Softbank was to strategically invest 1.064 billion Japanese yens in Founder (Japan) Inc..
The investment from Softbank has significant impact on Founder Holdings's further development. First of all, Softbank's evaluation of Founder (Japan) Inc. at 5.5 billion Japanese yens is a most favourable recognition for Founder's achievements in product development and market penetration ever since the establishment of Founder (Japan) Inc. four years ago. Second, the strategic capital injection of more than one billion Japanese yens into Founder (Japan) Inc. is also an clear indication of Softbank's identification with Founder (Japan) Inc.'s future business plans. This demonstrates that strategies adopted by Founder (Japan) Inc - taking advantage of Founder's technological strength and focusing on areas such as commercial printing, newspaper solutions, database information publishing and online self-service printing - do answer the need of the Japanese market and it looks to have great future prosperity. Third, the investment from Softbank provides Founder (Japan) Inc. with sufficient capital to support more R&D to be done on new product/technology developments. Fourth, other than providing capital support, Softbank as a professional IT investing firm will definitely help promote Founder's management and marketing capabilities, which can also help Founder (Japan) Inc. accumulate experiences for future listing.
Such investment is welcomed warmly by the Board of Directors at Founder Holdings as well as the Management at Founder (Japan) Inc. "The capital injection from Softbank comes in good time for Founder's executing its overseas development strategy, when Founder Holdings management starts to work in unity", said Chairman of Founder Holdings, Professor Wang Xuan. He also expressed the delight that Softbank, a world-renowned investing firm, should inject such a large amount into Founder (Japan) Inc., which he said demonstrated that Founder's business and technology development has great potential and value-increasing capacity.
President & CEO of Softbank Finance Corporation, Mr Yoshitaka Kitao had come all the way to Beijing to attend the signing ceremony. He said, "Softbank is glad to have the opportunity of cooperating with one of China's IT giants." He also mentioned that Softbank had strict investing guidelines by which their subjects should have not only a excellent business model, but also a super management to ride the model and that Founder (Japan) Inc. had won unanimous recognition from Softbank's decision-makers.
As for Founder Holdings, the holding company of Founder (Japan) Inc., business in all directions has picked up greatly this year. Beijing Founder Electronics, one of Founder Holdings' PRC subsidiaries, has recently announced its turnaround to black in the first half of the year 2000. EC-Founder, another subsidiary under Founder Holdings, did its PRC market launching on September 5th, symbolising Founder's formal entry into the Internet arena. May 26th also saw Founder Order's launching its "e-Integration" strategy, blueprinting its Internet age business model. On the Founder New Century Development Conference a few days ago, Founder Holdings disclosed that they had made much progress on the overseas markets. Today's signing ceremony is a very good example. With capital injection from Softbank and with future cooperation with them in sight, Founder has now acquired stronger fiscal foundation for IT development, as well as most favourable environment for overseas expansion.
President of Founder (Japan) Inc., Mr Guan Xiang Hong (Kan Shoukou in Japanese) is excited about Softbank's investment. He explained at the ceremony that, with Softbank's injected capital, Founder (Japan) Inc. was going to further expand its technology development, turning out more media products in answer to the needs from both the Japanese market and markets in the neighbourhood countries.
At the signing ceremony, besides investing in Founder Holdings, Softbank also expressed interest in other businesses under Peking University Founder Group and its IT-industry leadership position, declaring that they were hoping to have more cooperation opportunities with Founder Group in future. At the ceremony, they made the pledge to form partnership with Founder Group, to selectively invest in other IT companies established by Founder Group, to cooperate in domains such as technology, investment and market development and to help Founder Group and its subsidiaries in distributing products on the Japanese market as well as establishing relationship with non-competing corporations. On the other hand, Founder Group made similar pledge that they should help Softbank developing their China market. Both also mentioned that they would like to cooperate in the cultivation of technical and managerial human resources.
It is now Autumn, a season for harvesting, and at the same time a season for making provisions for next year's reaping and next year's harvesting. A few days ago, Founder Holdings New Century Development Conference already drew blueprint for Founder's further development. With the developmental direction for all subsidiaries crystalising, Founder Holdings is now prepared to develop internationally. Founder Holdings' international development leans on the technological backing provided by Founder R&D, the pioneering effort exerted by Founder Electronics and EC-Founder in their respective arena, the industrial advantage of Founder Order in system integration, as well as its already-established international presence in the form of Founder (Japan) Inc. and over overseas subsidiaries.
About Softbank
Softbank is a world-renowned investing firm, with headquarters in Japan and office all over the world. Softbank has strong focus on cultivating hi-tech industries, aiming at future-influential technologies. Softbank has largely cooperated with or invested in companies like IBM, News Corporation, French Telecom, Yahoo! and China.com. Softbank's cooperation with Founder this time is another important step taken in their business development in China.
About Founder Holdings
Founder Holdings Limited is an SEHK-listed subsidiary of Peking University Founder Group, with its major subsidiaries including Beijing Founder Electronics, EC-Founder, Founder Order, Founder Japan and Founder overseas. Its main business scope is now redefined as providing trans-media products/services, total solutions and system integration for its Internet-age clients. Headquartering in Hong Kong, leaning on its technological advantages in Chinese character and related language digitalisation and publishing, the Company is determined to expand further on the international market.
For Further Information Please Contact:
| Founder Holdings Limited Cindy Cheung cindy@founder.com.hk tel: 852.2611.4124 fax: 852.2611.4117 | Beijing Founder Electronics Co, Ltd Iris, Cao Yan Xin caoyx@founder.com.cn tel: 86.10.62579955 ext 8387 fax: 86.10.62563881 |
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