25th Jun 2014 11:00
Press Release | 25 June 2014 |
JQW plc
("JQW" or the "Group")
Result of Annual General Meeting
Trading update
Dividend payment date
JQW plc (AIM:JQW), a domestic Chinese B2B e-commerce operator, announces that at its Annual General Meeting held earlier today in London, all resolutions put to shareholders were duly passed.
Following a positive start to 2014, the Board is confident that the Group is trading ahead of current market expectations for this financial year. The management team remains focused on the implementation of the Group's strategy and remains positive for the continued future growth of JQW. The Group will issue a more detailed interim trading update to the market in early August 2014.
Following approval by shareholders at the AGM of the final dividend of 0.5 pence per share for the financial year ended 31 December 2013, the dividend timetable is set out below:
2 July 2014 | Ordinary Shares quoted ex dividend |
4 July 2014 | Record date for dividend |
14 July 2014 | Dividend payment date |
Cai Yongde, Chairman of JQW, said: "We are extremely pleased with the progress that the Group has made in the current financial year and we are confident that both revenues and profit after tax will be ahead of market expectations.
"JQW joined AIM to enable the Group to further its international ambitions and shortly will make an announcement in relation to the launch of the Group's English language e-commerce platform. The Board of JQW is keen to continue to demonstrate the underlying strengths of the business to the AIM market for many years to come."
- Ends -
For further information:
JQW plc | |
Cai Yongde, Chairman | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7714 |
Chen Daocai, Chief Executive Officer | www.jqw-ir.com |
Kooi Wei Boon, Chief Financial Officer |
Argento Capital Markets Limited | |
Alan MacKenzie / Jim McGeever | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7093 0353 |
www.argentocapital.net |
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad & Broker) | |
Sandy Jamieson / Liam Murray | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7148 7900 |
www.cairnfin.com |
Media enquiries:
Abchurch Communications Limited | |
Henry Harrison-Topham / Quincy Allan | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7714 |
www.abchurch-group.com |
About JQW plc
JQW is a leading domestic business-to-business e-commerce provider based in the Chinese province of Jiangsu. The Group's core business is its online B2B platform, www.jqw.com, which has been developed to encourage domestic trade by connecting Chinese SMEs with potential trade partners. Founded in 2004, the platform was developed to help to market Chinese SME's websites. JQW has evolved rapidly to become the second highest ranked B2B e-commerce website and operates, what the director's believe to be, the first dedicated B2B search engine, www.jqw.cn.
JQW offers a low-cost entry point for Chinese SMEs to promote themselves and their B2B products to potential buyers. In order to increase transaction opportunities, JQW offers its clients a broad range of services including website design, commercial search services and advertising.
There are approximately 49 million SMEs in China manufacturing a diverse range of products, accounting for 60% of the country's GDP. The number of mobile internet-access users in China stood at 839 million at February 2014 and there is a considerable amount being invested into the country's telecommunications infrastructure. These factors have driven an increased demand for domestic trade of B2B, B2C and C2C e-commerce. With the majority of these SMEs requiring the use of third party B2B e-commerce platforms to promote their businesses and access trade partners, the Board believes that JQW offers a robust and highly reputable branded platform. With exposure in over 50 industry sectors and considerable scope for future growth, JQW is in a strong position to capitalise on the development of this market.
For the year ended 31 December 2013, JQW reported a 71% increase in revenues to to RMB 493.1 million, which was significantly ahead of market expectations (2012: RMB 287.8 million). Profit before tax also more than doubled to RMB 171.4 million (2012: RMB 84.1).
As at 31 December 2013, the Group had:
10 million | Registered users |
5 million | Page views per day |
840,000 | Sheng-Yi-Tong members with website "shops" |
197,000 | Fee-paying members |
700 | Rated in the top 700 websites for global website traffic rankings |
36 | Sales agencies |
2 | Second (behind Alibaba) in Chinese B2B website traffic rankings |
Related Shares:
JQW.L