23rd Sep 2015 09:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chinese business-to-business e-commerce operator JQW PLC on Wednesday said its pretax profit was higher in the first half thanks to growth in revenue and said it has made progress despite the challenging economic environment in China.
JQW said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was up 5% to CNY110.0 million, up from CNY105.0 million, as revenue rose to CNY433.0 million from CNY346.0 million.
The company said its active fee paying members rose to 243,000 at the end of June, up from 221,000 a year earlier and slightly up on the 241,000 it had at the start of the year, indicating a slowdown in growth.
"The board is pleased with the progress made in spite of the challenging economic climate. The group has maintained the growth in contracted sales during the period and continued to increase the number of new sales agencies which management believes is instrumental in achieving sustained future growth. The board is pleased with the progress of the e-commerce platform, which is core to the group's competitiveness, and continues to view the future with optimism," said Cai Yongde, JQW's chairman.
The results come, however, after the company said on Monday that it has been fined CNY18,000, about GBP1,800, and given a penalty of a one-month suspension of operations for violations of Chinese advertisement law, advertisement management regulations and the prohibition of pyramid selling regulations.
JQW said the violations of advertising regulations arose from client websites that it hosts on www.jqw.com, and as a result, the website has been suspended for a month.
JQW said it is reviewing its internal controls and procedures to monitor client websites for potential breaches of regulation, and is working with the regulators to ensure all of its client websites are fully compliant so that the suspension can be lifted at the end of the one-month period.
Shares in JQW were down 2.1% to 6.00 pence on Wednesday, leaving its shares down 43% for the week following the plunge that accompanied its announcement on Monday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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