Tom.com Issues 428 Million Shares at HK$1.48-1.78 per Share
to Raise HK$630-760 Million
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Proceeds to be Used for Capital Expenditure, Promotion and Marketing, Development of
e-Commerce Business and Strategic Investments
17 February 2000
The unique and personalized multi-lingual China-related new media mega-portal, tom.com limited ("tom.com"), today announced that it will raise approximately HK$630-760 million (subject to over-allotment option) through the issue of 428 million new shares at HK$1.48-1.78 per share.
42.8 million shares will be offered to the public and 359.52 million shares will be placed with professional, institutional and other investors. 21.4 million shares will be placed with Tom's subscribers and 4.28 million shares will be placed to individuals or institutions including certain employees and executive directors of tom.com.
With the support of its strong shareholders including Hutchison Whampoa Limited, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, Schumann International Limited, Handel International Limited and Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited, in conjunction with its core strengths in technology, media foundation, content acquisition and presentation, tom.com is well positioned to act as the conduit for information and entertainment between China and the rest of the world through the Internet.
tom.com will provide broad "China Experience" content to the rest of the world and "Lifestyle for Chinese" content and e-commerce to the worldwide Chinese population both in the Greater China region and overseas Chinese-speaking communities, aiming to "Bring China to the world and bring the world to China".
Mr Frank Sixt, Chairman of tom.com said, "Tom is much more than just another portal start-up. Its ambition is much greater than this, simply, Tom aims to be the Premier New Media Channel bringing the future of Internet communication to the Chinese language consumer audience."
tom.com will provide its content and services through three principal portals operating under the "Tom" brand. These portals will become increasingly localized with the launch of specific websites in major Chinese population centers including Taiwan, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, San Francisco and Vancouver.
Mr Carl Chang, CEO of tom.com said, "We had a successful soft launch for our new and unique Chinese language information and entertainment content platform operating under the Tomcast brand on January 18, 2000. In just a month, we have signed on approximately 70,000 registered members and report a daily page view of 2.5 million. We are confident that the hit rate will increase significantly with the addition of new content such as travel, culture, science, learning, art, fashion, games and fun, news, sports and other infotainment items shortly."
To date, tom.com has entered into 10 content provision and licence contracts, ranging from three years to 10 years, with external content providers and will continue to find value added content providers which have leading edge technology, unique content and relationships.
"Once we have developed and localized our content, we will establish a solid income base derived from advertising revenues, transaction and subscription revenues from products and services, commission revenues and content syndication," Mr Chang continued.
Through the IPO, tom.com will raise net proceeds of approximately HK$640 million (assuming an offer price of HK$1.63 per share, being the mid-point of the stated range of the offer price of between HK$1.48 and HK$1.78 per share), after the deduction of related expenses and before the exercise of over-allotment option. The Company intends to use approximately HK$240 million for capital expenditure in relation to technology and content development; approximately HK$150 million for promotion and marketing activities; approximately HK$10 million for development of the Group's e-commerce business. The balance of approximately HK$230 million will serve as general working capital and strategic investments.
The public offering will commence on Friday, 18th February till 12:00 p.m. of Wednesday, 23rd February, 2000. The allotment result will be announced on Monday, 28th February, 2000. Dealings in shares are expected to commence on Wednesday, 1st March, 2000. tom.com will be the first portal to be listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
BNP Prime Peregrine is the global coordinator, sponsor and bookrunner of the IPO.
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For more information, please contact:
| Strategic Financial Relations Limited Richard Tsang richard@strategic.com.hk Jackey Ho |