9th Sep 2014 09:01
LONDON (Alliance News) - Chinese e-commerce operator JQW PLC Tuesday signalled its confidence by proposing a special dividend, as it saw profit rise in the half year to end-June.
The company proposed a special dividend of 5.0 pence, on top of a maiden interim dividend of 0.2 pence.
JQW, which listed on AIM last December, posted a pretax profit of CNY105.2 million, up from CNY70.8 million, as revenue rose to CNY346.1 million from CNY180.8 million, although this was partly offset by a jump in the cost of sales and other operating expenses.
Revenue growth was boosted by a larger number of new three-month contracts signed by fee paying members; it saw a 33% increase in active fee paying members during the first half.
JQW noted that although it does not expect to see this growth to materialise again in the second half, it is confident it will meet it full-year targets.
During the first half the company's main focus has been appointing new sales agencies, it said. Since the end of 2013 the company expanded its number of sales agencies by 10.
It also launched its English language e-commerce platform; at the moment the site is only open to members in industries where there is an international price competitive position and where there are low barriers for exports. It said it was "satisfied" with the current response to the site.
Additionally, it has been exploring mobile applications, and is continuing to develop products for both iOS and Android systems. It expects to bring these two applications to market in the next few months.
JQW said it believes it will continue to benefit from the rapid growth of e-commerce in China. As at August 29, it was in second place behind Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in terms of business-to-business website traffic rankings.
"We look forward to adding more sales agencies as well as developing platforms for smartphone users to further broaden our offering and take advantage of the rapidly growing Chinese B2B e-commerce market," said Chairman Cai Yongde in a statement.
Shares in JQW were trading up 6.7% at 59.76 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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