Highlights

• Overall operation achieved a sound growth momentum with new orders growth of over 30% year-on-year;
• Revenue amounted to approximately RMB3,109 million, up by 14.5% year on year;
• Revenue from Three New Business surpassed RMB1 billion for the first time in a half-year, up by 81.4% year on year, and its proportion to the total revenue increased to 32.3%;
• COVID-19 caused the delay in delivery and inspection of projects, creating short-term pressure on profits. Net profit² (excluding share-based compensation expenses) amounted to approximately RMB262 million;
• The net profit margin (excluding share-based compensation expenses) was 8.4%; and
• With the ease of the epidemic, the positive momentum in revenue growth will be maintained and net profit will restore its growth momentum for the full year.

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 8 August 2022 – AsiaInfo Technologies Limited (“AsiaInfo Technologies” or “the Company” and its subsidiaries (collectively, “the Group”), stock code: 1675.HK) is pleased to announce the unaudited consolidated interim results of the Company for the six months ended 30 June 2022 (the “Reporting Period”).

Despite COVID-19, revenue growth sustained and increased by 14.5% year-on-year

With the official release of The Plan for Development of the Digital Economy in 14th Five-Year Plan Period, digital economy development plans have been issued and implemented rapidly in various regions, and digital technology is being fully integrated into the economy, people’s livelihood and other key areas. Facing the trend of digital transformation in the whole society, in the first half of 2022, guided by the business strategy of “One consolidation, Three developments”, the overall operating results of the Company maintained a sound growth momentum.

During the Reporting Period, new orders of the Company increased by over 30% year-on-year. The revenue of the Company amounted to approximately RMB3,109 million, up by 14.5% year on year. Among them, the revenue from the Three New Business amounted to approximately RMB1,004 million, up by 81.4% year-on-year, and its proportion to the total revenue increased to 32.3%.

In terms of profits, affected by COVID-19, the entry, delivery and acceptance of several projects of the Company were delayed, resulting in short-term pressure on profits. Gross profit reached approximately RMB1,054 million, up by 5.6% year-on-year. Excluding the share-based compensation expenses, the net profit amounted to approximately RMB262 million. With the ease of the pandemic in various regions after June, economic activities gradually resumed, driving the sustained and robust order bookings and the improvement of delivery efficiency, and the Company expected to maintain a sound momentum of revenue growth and the net profit is to restore its growth momentum for the full year.

The Board, after taking into full consideration of various factors including Shareholders’ returns, profitability, cash flow level and capital needs for future development of the Company, had decided not to distribute interim dividend for the Reporting Period and proposed to maintain the dividend payout ratio guidance of not less than 40% of the net profit for the year 2022.

Three New Business maintained fast growth with business structure optimized remarkably

In the first half of this year, the Company continued to implement the business strategy of “One consolidation, Three developments”. While continuing reinforcing its leading position in the Business Support Systems (“BSS”) market, Three New business showed solid growth momentum, and has become the main driving force for the rapid growth of the overall revenue.

For the DSaaS business, the Company completed the acquisition of iResearch Consulting at the beginning of the year, enhancing the DSaaS and intelligent decision-making capability and optimizing the revenue structure. During the first half of the year, the proportion of the revenue from industries outside the communications industry increased to nearly 40%. Moreover, the Company continued to innovate business models. Among them, the results-based and commission-based charging model helped improve customer trust, satisfaction and stickiness and was replicated at multiple customers in scale in the first half of 2022, and its proportion to the revenue of DSaaS (excluding iResearch Consulting revenue) increased to nearly 30%. During the first half of 2022, the Company’s DSaaS business achieved a revenue of approximately RMB484 million, up by 56.7% year-on-year, and its proportion to the total revenue reached 15.6%.

For vertical industries and enterprise cloudification, in the first half of 2022, the Company continued its focus on the five strategic industries, widened its footprint in the industries of government affairs, energy, transportation, finance and postal services, and achieved significant growth in business scale. Among them, energy and government affairs industries achieved significant growth in revenue, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.6 times and 1.7 times respectively. In energy industry, the Company promoted replications of core solutions such as energy middle office and 5G private network in nuclear power, wind power, thermal power and other markets, supporting customers to eliminate potential safety hazards, enhance synergy and operation efficiency. In the government affair industry, solutions such as government affairs big data and digital government have become important engines of revenue growth. In the first half of 2022, thanks to the continuous expansion of new and old customers in the vertical industries and the steady development of cloudification business, the Company’s revenue from vertical industries and enterprise cloudification business amounted to approximately RMB271 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 140.3%.

For the OSS business, the Company actively supported customers to establish an efficient, intelligent, neat and collaborative network operation management system. By improving its R&D and innovation, the Company’s 5G network intelligent products continued to drive the industry. During the first half of the year, with the acceleration of 5G construction in the country, the Company’s OSS business scale grew rapidly and achieved a revenue of approximately RMB248 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 88.7%.

For BSS traditional business, the Company actively answered customers’ new demand through technological innovation, deeply participated in the planning and construction projects of smart middle office and digital intelligence-related solutions for the three major telecommunications operators, helped customers achieve digital intelligence transformation, and continued to consolidate market leadership. In expanding new market, the Company successfully delivered 5G business support system project for China Broadcast Network (CBN), quickly supporting its nationwide launch of 5G service with high-quality customer service, five months after winning the bid. During the first half of 2022, COVID-19 led to the deferral in orders delivery and inspection, resulting BSS traditional business revenue amounted to approximately RMB2,065 million.

Driven by R&D, product capability continued to enhance

The Company always attached great importance to the R&D and continued to strengthen the product capabilities. In the first half of 2022, the Company increased investments in R&D with R&D expenses (excluding share-based compensation expenses) amounting to approximately RMB473 million, representing an increase of 8.7% year-on-year and accounting for 15.2% of revenue. In the first half of this year, the Company continued to intensively participate in 20 international/ national standards organisations, including 3GPP, ITU, ETSI, IEEE, TMF and O-RAN, etc. In terms of intellectual property rights, the Company added 44 new software copyrights certificates and 9 new patents, and made 50 new patent applications.

Through continuous refinement and enhancement of product capabilities, the Company has formed a structure based on “Middle Office” product system to empower three major product systems of “Digital Intelligence”, “Cloud Network” and “IT”, which has effectively contributed to the rapid growth of Three New Business. In digital intelligent product system and cloud network product system, the Company is at the forefront of the industry. In IT product system, the Company is among the tier-1 domestic vendors. As to middle office product system, the Company has built the foundation for the digital intelligence transformation of the industry.

Accelerate business development to achieve the goal of 2025

Looking forward, with the continuous strong demands for digital transformation of enterprises that brought by digital economy, the Company will always adhere to “One consolidation, Three developments” strategy, continue to strengthen the consulting & planning, product R&D, implementation and delivery, system integration, smart decision-making, data operation, customer service and other full-stack digital and intelligent capabilities, perfect the close-loop offerings for customers, and unswervingly strive to make solid progress towards the goal of “achieving a business scale of over RMB10 billion in 2025, half of which contributed by the new business”.

In terms of Three New Business, the Company will accelerate the business development, further promote Three New Business as the core driver for the rapid growth of the overall revenue. Meanwhile, the Company will deepen business collaboration, especially the intensive integration with iResearch Consulting, so as to create business synergy. For our traditional businesses, the Company will pay close attention to the digital and intelligent transformation needs of telecommunications operators and the development opportunities of new customers, empower customers with innovative and advanced products and solutions, expand the business landscape, and improve the efficiency, thus further solidifying the leading position in the telecommunications operators’ market.

The Company is fully confident about the long-term development and believes that with the ease of COVID-19 and the improvement of online operation, the delivery efficiency will be substantially improved and short-term pressure on profits during the first half of the year will be relieved. Further, the Company expects to maintain a sound momentum of revenue growth and the net profit will restore its growth momentum for the full year.

Note 1: Three New Business refers to Data-Driven Operation (DSaaS), vertical industries and enterprise cloudification, and Operations Support Systems (OSS) business.
Note 2: To facilitate comparisons of the overall operating performance of the Company in different periods, the net profit is adjusted to exclude the impact of recognition of share-based compensation expenses caused by the time difference of granting share-based compensation.
Hashtag: #AsiaInfo

About AsiaInfo Technologies Limited

AsiaInfo Technologies Limited was founded in 1993, and successfully listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 19 December 2018. Riding on consulting planning, product R&D, implementation and delivery, system integration, smart decision-making, data operation, customer service and other full-stack digital and intelligent capabilities, AsiaInfo Technologies provides software products and related services of business transformation and digitalisation for communication operators and corporate customers in industries such as finance, energy, transportation, government affairs, and postal services.

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• Hubei Bafeng is one of the national pharmaceutical amino acid industrialization bases in China, with over 20 drug approval numbers;
• After the acquisition is completed, Grand Pharma will become the pharmaceutical company with the most registration numbers of amino acid APIs in China;
• Grand Pharma’s amino acid industry has leading technological advantages, and its products are sold to more than 140 countries and regions around the world.

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 8 August 2022 – Grand Pharmaceutical Group Limited (Grand Pharma, 0512.HK) announced that it has recently entered into an equity acquisition agreement with Hubei Provincial Bafeng Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals Share Co., Ltd., pursuant to which Grand Pharma will acquire 100% equity interests of Hubei Bafeng with RMB 270 million after the relevant conditions as agreed in the Acquisition Agreement are fulfilled.

The acquisition of Hubei Bafeng marks another strategic plan of Grand Pharma in the field of amino acid following its acquisition of Cangzhou Huachen BioTech Co., Ltd. in 2021. After the acquisition is completed, Grand Pharma will become the pharmaceutical company with the most registration numbers of amino acid Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in China, which will tremendously expand the Company’s high-quality amino acid product portfolio, further enhance and improve the Company’s market comprehensive competitiveness in the field of amino acid, and drive the sustained and rapid growth of amino acid business.

Founded in 1997, Hubei Bafeng mainly engages in the R&D, production and operation of amino acid APIs and preparations. It is one of the national pharmaceutical amino acid industrialization bases in China. Hubei Bafeng is GMP certificated, with over 20 drug approval numbers, among which, Compound Amino Acid Oral Solution (14AA) and Glutamic Acid, Alanine Acid Glycine Acid Tablets are exclusive preparation products. Hubei Bafeng has an annual production capacity of 3,000 tons of amino acid APIs, 20 million units of amino acid oral solutions and 750 million tablets (granules, bags) of amino acid preparations. It exports API products to over 20 countries and regions. After the transaction is completed, Grand Pharma will have 24 registration numbers of amino acid APIs, accounting for more than 70% of the registration numbers in the same segment, making it the pharmaceutical company with the most registration numbers for amino acid APIs in China. This will further reinforce Grand Pharma’s leading position in the high-quality amino acid segment.

Grand Pharma has been deeply engaged in amino acid industry for more than 20 years and has been upholding the spirit of technological innovation. With synthetic biology as the core, it first pioneered a world-leading innovative technology in China based on biological method to produce various amino acids, which filled the gap in the industry. The Company’s core product cysteine series ranked first in the world in terms of both market share and production capacity, and the production capacity of taurine ranked second in the world. Benefiting from the strategy of further expanding international business and big health business, Grand Pharma achieved sustained rapid growth in the field of amino acid in recent years. In 2021, its annual revenue was around RMB 1.82 billion, representing an increase of approximately 54.5% compared with the same period in 2020.

Grand Pharma always adheres to the core business concept of “new technology, high quality, full industry chain, and internationalization”, continuously enhancing the expansion in amino acid industry, and taking advantage of its industrial superiority based on pharmaceutical grade amino acids to extend into diversified amino acids.

New Technology:

With synthetic biology as the core and after years of scientific research, Grand Pharma has established eight technological platforms including enzyme engineering, fermentation engineering, process engineering, quality research and application conversion, etc., forming unique technical advantages in the construction and optimization of strains, regulation of metabolic pathways, control of fermentation, separation and purification as well as product application and development. Some of the its techniques have filled the domestic gap.

Through integrated innovation in multiple technological sectors, the Company has established an integrated collaboration system combining new product development, new technology engineering and industrialization as well as application solutions, offering robust support to continuous technological innovation and industrial localization. Among them, the fermentation production process with strain construction and optimization as the core and the enzymatic production process with immobilized enzyme as the core are not only capable of replacing traditional synthetic process, but can also greatly reduce carbon dioxide emission during the production process. It abundantly implements the concepts of “carbon peak” and “carbon neutrality” for energy saving, emission reduction, and green development, showcasing great economic and environmental benefits. By constant optimization of fermentation, separation and purification processes, it has achieved a leading position in the industry in key indicators such as output and yield. Through the technology which integrated fermentation and enzymatic methods (the production of industrial enzymes through the fermentation of industrial microorganisms), it uses the patented technology of immobilized enzymes to significantly shortens the time for enzymatic transformation, tremendously improves the yield and reduces product unit cost. By replacing the dangerous procedures in traditional synthetic process with biological enzymatic method, it significantly reduces the overall cost and improves production safety. The industry technological expressway established by Grand Pharma in the field of amino acid has already taken shape, and will gradually enter into the best period for returns. It has laid a solid foundation for original technological innovation and product industrialization.

Grand Pharma highly values the R&D team building and the integration of production and research. In the field of amino acid, it has a core technical team led by talents in the Hubei Province Hundred Talents Program. The Company has also established long-term strategic partnerships with many scientific research institutions including Tsinghua University, Wuhan University and Tianjin University of Science and Technology, etc. The Company now has more than 300 R&D and technical personnel, all of whom are from interdisciplinary backgrounds such as microbiology, applied chemistry, biochemical engineering, pharmacy and food science, etc. An innovation model integrated production, education, research and application, and the technological innovation talent echelon with clear division of responsibilities and complementary advantages in this field have already delivered fruitful outcomes. With 64 patents, it takes a leading position in the industry in terms of the quantity of invention patents. Core subsidiaries in this field have won multiple honors including the National and Provincial Specialized, Refinement, Differential and Innovation Enterprise, the National Intellectual Property Advanced Enterprise, China Light Industry Sulfur-containing Amino Acid Green Manufacturing Engineering Technology Research Center, China Export Leading Indicator (ELI) Sample Enterprise and Provincial Hidden Champion Enterprise, etc.

High Quality:

Grand Pharma’s amino acid products have obtained comprehensive quality certifications from home and abroad. Multiple products have been certified and registered within the food and drug administration system of many countries and regions including the European Union, the United States, Japan, Southeast Asia and China. Certifications the Company has obtained include EU GMP certification, Accreditation Certificate of Foreign Drug Manufacturer in Japan, KFDA Registration in Korea, MAPA certification in Brazil, Free Sale Certificate Attestation in Argentina; as well as ISO quality management system certification, FSSC22000 food system certification, GRAS certification in the U.S., HALAL certification, KOSHER certification, etc. The comprehensive certifications and registrations that Grand Pharma has obtained demonstrates its strong competitiveness in business expansion in overseas market.

Full Industry Chain:

After the completion of this transaction, Grand Pharma will have nearly 50 kinds of amino acids and derivative products including cysteine series, arginine series and taurine, as well as 24 registration numbers for amino acid APIs, accounting for more than 70% of the registration numbers in the same segment, making it the pharmaceutical company with the most registration numbers for amino acid APIs in China. Rich amino acid portfolio can better address the customized needs of the downstream market, as well as provide multi-variety and multi-standard one-stop service to enhance customer loyalty in the high-end application market. In addition to APIs, Grand Pharma is also actively expanding its preparations portfolio. Two functional dietary nutritional supplements developed by the Company, Citrulline Taurine Preparations patented in the U.S. for improving sports endurance, and Acetylcysteine Preparations for protecting respiratory health and boosting immunity, have both obtained FDA certification and were officially commercialized in the U.S. in 2021.

Internationalization:

The amino acid sales network of Grand Pharma covers more than 140 countries and regions around the world, including mainstream markets such as the EU, the U.S., Japan, Southeast Asia and China, with overseas business accounts for more than 50% of the total revenue, and some of the amino acid products rank among the top three in terms of market share. Based on technological break throughs and cost advantages, the Company has been supplying its core products to high-quality customers at home and abroad, including Fortune Global 500 enterprises such as Zambon, Sanofi and Nestle, etc. on a long-term basis, and has established stable cooperation relationships with both upstream and downstream customers. It has established a high level of brand recognition and market reputation around the globe.

Grand Pharma commented, In the future, the Company will continue to leverage its world-leading innovative process based on biological method in the field of high-quality amino acids, and its solid industrial foundation, industrial accumulation, rich amino acid product portfolio, high-standard quality certification system, powerful international registration and commercialization capacity to focus on the strategic plan on drug-related high value-added sectors including high-end parenteral nutrition preparations, innovative peptide medicines and cell culture media, etc., as well as big health consumer sectors including functional dietary nutrition supplements for sports protection, special medical and infant food, beauty and pet foods, etc. The broad downstream market space along with its great development potential will provide continuous and strong momentum for the Company in the field of amino acid.

For further information, please refer to Grand Pharma’s website at http://grandpharm.com/

Hashtag: #GrandPharma

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 8 August 2022 – China’s leading maternity and child-focused community platform, BabyTree Group (“BabyTree” or “The Group”, Stock Code: 01761.HK) was awarded ” Silver Award of Sustainable Development Category” by HKSSA – The remarkable advisory firm focusing on enterprises’ abilities of their sustainable development in late July, demonstrating its efforts in sustainability development is well-recognized by the investment community.

Regarding the Silver rating, Mr. Xu Chong, Executive Director and CFO of BabyTree Group, said: “We recently released our 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report, practicing ESG concepts has become an important dimension to measure the long-term development of an enterprise, and the long-term value that it brings as it is valued by all enterprises.”

“The core value of the BabyTree platform is to help families dealing with maternity and infants pursue happiness. At the same time, we are committed to building a healthy and sustainable new business ecosystem with our partners and employees. BabyTree has been practicing its own value in the field of ESG to build a customer-centric system with ‘love’.”

“As the leading platform in the maternity and infant field, BabyTree has the determination and confidence to build a healthy and standardized maternity and infant service platform forging ahead together with our users, the industry and the society continuously situating itself on the service of families dealing with maternity and infants thereby contribute to overall social development.”

BabyTree is the largest and most active M&C community platform in terms of MAU (monthly active users) in China. The Group is dedicated to connecting and serving young families by building an online platform for expectant and young parents in China so that they can communicate with one another and get the best pregnancy advice. In 2021, BabyTree Parenting APP took the lead with comprehensive high-quality content and an active community atmosphere, further improving user experience and activity. Annual average MAU on the platform reached 22.787 million, as it now becomes the app with the highest coverage and the highest number of MAU among similar M&C platforms.

The Group has deepened and developed public welfare undertakings in the previous year and upgraded the “2+1+6” public welfare system. The Group has added vitality in terms of rural hygiene and education by attracting talent that can help with rural revitalization and boost industrial economic transformation. It is working to help the agriculture sector and boost sales thereby promoting industrial revitalization. At the same time, BabyTree promotes projects on woman’s right and children’s right aspects to push the development of social responsibility work.

For users, BabyTree is committed to connecting and serving young families, assisting them in building a nurturing and friendly society with “Products for Love, Pregnancy and Parenting “. With BabyTree Parenting app as the core within the traffic matrix, BabyTree provides one-stop products and services to fully meet four needs in prenatal and postnatal care, communication and friendship, healthy growth and optimal shopping of maternal and infant family.

Concerning partnerships in corporate governance, BabyTree’s ESG report pointed out the notion of “Care for Partners without Biased Operation” demonstrating that BabyTree has forged long-term and mutual-beneficial relationships with the upstream and downstream industries.

For employees, BabyTree follows the principle of “Employee Care, Happy Work” and adheres to a good corporate culture, building a sound platform for employee’ career development and establishing a comprehensive welfare system with great importance attached to the direction of employee’ career development.

In addition, BabyTree attracts external high-quality talents to join and encourages employees to give full play to their potential.

Concerning environmental governance, BabyTree actively advocates low-carbon environmental protection within the Group, encouraging electricity saving and green travel and actively promotes the construction of green offices, and pursues the four-purpose environmental protection principle of “reduce, reuse, recycle and replace” to minimize waste and make the most efficient use of resources.

In addition, Fosun Group is the major shareholder of BabyTree. Focusing on the three core needs of health, happiness and wealth, Fosun Group has built an industrial ecosystem that runs through the entire life cycle of a family. It owns high-end residences and maternity inspection hospitals, global industrial channels, genetic testing, film and television IP and many other scarce resources. BabyTree deeply cooperate with Fosun’s ecology and realize online and offline traffic complementarity, continuously delivering precise audiences for the brand. At the same time, the ecological combination of Fosun Group and BabyTree will also create files for users throughout the pregnancy cycle, thereby further providing high-quality maternity services to families with maternity and infants.

Hashtag: #BabyTreeGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.