News: 99wuxian expanding m-commerce in China

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Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with 99wuxian Limited (ASX:NNW) Chairman, Ross Benson

Lelde Smits: Hello I’m Lelde Smits for the Finance News Network and joining me from 99wuxian Limited (ASX:NNW) is its Chairman, Ross Benson. Ross welcome back to FNN.

Ross Benson: My pleasure Lelde.

Lelde Smits: Since we last spoke 99wuxian has announced a series of major milestones, including a $25 million equity placement. What is the main purpose of the funding?

Ross Benson: The main purpose of the placement was really to continue the organic growth trajectory of the business, and we’ve now established a platform that’s been in operation for two years. And we’re seeing very strong growth rates come through, as you’ll see from the announcement on the last quarter’s figures. And it’s very important that we maintain this momentum, so this is part of that process.

Lelde Smits: You’ve also just initiated a strategic review to assess your listing structure and location. What are you aiming to determine?

Ross Benson: The main objective from what we call the RFP process, which really stands for a request for proposal from a lot of the global investment banks, who are thematically following this space very strongly - is to make sure that our current listing structure and our capital structure, really accommodates the optimum outcome for the shareholders in the business. The underlying industry drivers are very, very strong and so it’s very important that we are positioned well in advance, to accommodate the growth that we expect in the future.

Lelde Smits: 99wuxian’s strategy also includes increasing the average transaction value and spend per registered user. How are you tracking in delivering these objectives?

Ross Benson: Well I think the interesting thing about our business is the drivers behind this business, are a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. So whilst the Company is actively looking at strategies to increase this user spend and frequency of spend, the nature of the consumer behaviour means that the driver is that consumer change. So all dynamics of that, or the economics around that consumer are increasing both the frequency of spend and the spend per transaction. So we’re very pleased with the progress that that is making.

Lelde Smits: Turning to trading results, last month you reported solid growth in all key performance indicators. What stood out the most for you?

Ross Benson: I think probably the biggest factor is that we’re seeing a repeat of the organic growth that we’ve seen on a quarterly basis, even looking back two years on the platform. So our gross transaction value for the June quarter this year was approximately RMB1.6 billion. To June 13 last year quarter, it was about RMB580 million. And I think that we’ll find that that gross transaction value tracks a very similar trajectory to what we saw from June 13 last year to December 13, where we saw gross transaction value increase four to five times in that six month period. So we’re very pleased with the progress being made, 300 per cent growth quarter on a year to year basis is very strong.

Lelde Smits: Finally Ross, 99wuxian has already experienced significant growth since listing in October last year. Where are you now looking for opportunities?

Ross Benson: I think the biggest opportunity for Wuxian is we have 31 million registered users. Because we’re connected to our business partners through their mobile banking apps, at that level our business partners have already captured 320 million mobile banking app holders. So our biggest and most exciting opportunity is to now accelerate the rate at which those mobile app customers convert to registered users on our platform. So our focus really is in working with our business partners to accelerate that registration. And we certainly have some very strong targets looking forward and believe the business will grow, and continue to grow very quickly.

Lelde Smits: Ross Benson, thank you for the update from 99wuxian.

Ross Benson: Thank you Lelde.


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