aus Hartcourt.com ( Fragen und Antworten )
Q) What has Hartcourt done in the last 12 months?
A) Over these last 12 months, Hartcourt has been very ambitious in its plans for the company. Unfortunately some of our business plans did not result as anticipated, such as the SinoBull IPO in mid-2000, the addition of a US partner in stock trading and/or investment banking, and the proposed Hong Kong merger partner. While the proposed merger was not announced due to final market valuations and late requests for change in parameters, we still maintain friendly relations and the path for possible merger or inter-related business agreements/partnerships are still possible. Hartcourt also suspended its efforts to obtain a NASDAQ NM listing, and in retrospect, observing bellwether China stocks on the NASDAQ losing much greater values in market cap, the much more informed and China friendly markets of Hong Kong appear to be the most appropriate for achieving true valuations of China's potential. So instead of delaying our IPO's to the US market like many technology, Internet and telecommunications companies have for the last 5 months, Hartcourt has moved forward to IPO the SinoBull Financial Group and StreamingAsia (including LogicSpace.com and others) to the Hong Kong GEM market, underwritten by Yuanta Core-Pacific Yamaichi.
Often focus can be one-sided, either seeing the cup half full or half empty, and while Hartcourt was not able to achieve all of its goals (at least within the time of 12 months), in several areas we far exceeded our expectations. SinoBull.com quickly rose to the top financial services portal in the sector, reaching 3 million page views per market day. Quickly many have forgotten the agreements made for SinoBull to have special subsections on Yahoo! China's portal, and for SinoBull to be a key Financial provider for China Telecom's SinoHome.com portal, which serves as the interface greeting Chinese users of China Telecom's ISP (the largest provider of ISP service in China). SinoBull's financial analysis and news is so valued, strategic alliances were formed and the content is provided to such leading financial publications in China as Securities Daily (leading banking and investment industry newspaper in China), International Finance News (financial newspaper published by People's Daily, the country's standard), and ChinaInfo.com.cn (subsidiary of the People's Post & Telecommunications Publishing Corporation, the official news agency of the Ministry of Information Industry). Most of this was before Hartcourt's announcement to acquire an interest in WindInfo, which solidifies SinoBull's position as the top financial and securities news and research provider in China, definitely a position we anticipate opening many doors in the financial markets. SinoBull also entered a strategic partnership with Shanghai Industry Foreign Trade Telecom Corporation (SIFFT), Nokia's top tier distributor and value added developer in China, for incorporating wireless financial services to SIFTT's distribution of Nokia wireless mobile phones in China. And to further entrench SinoBull's position and leverage market leadership, SinoBull entered an agreement with China Cable Networks (CCN is China's main broadcast TV services company supporting all of China's major broadcast TV networks) for the joint production of a Financial TV channel, aimed at delivering 24hr service in the next 2 years, initially specializing in market hour coverage of China's stock exchange and the new mainboard (due to domestic demand) estimated to open in the Spring of 2001.
Further, to fill the role (at least in Hong Kong and eventually in Mainland China) of a US partner in brokerage services, Hartcourt Capital is acquiring a 30% interest in Koffman Securities, which will be used as our brokerage services to Mainland China once legislation allows. Hartcourt anticipates, China will allow brokerage services from Hong Kong first, before later opening up further legislation to Western financial companies. Of course, we continue to speak with possible US partners in financial services and investment banking, but for many of those who showed great interest in January of 2000, they currently are in a wait and see mode for China. Much of the Western capital that was so agressive in early 2000, is also sitting on the sidelines now, and part of that is due to the net decrease in their capital resources.
|