Impress Corporation and Posts & Telecommunications Press China Form Alliance for Co-Publishing Business in China
@Tokyo, August 24, 2005 -- Impress Holdings, Inc. (TSE: 9479) -- Impress Corporation (headquartered at Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Keiichiro Tsukamoto; called gImpressh hereafter), a subsidiary of ours specializing in publications related to information technology and digital media business, has agreed to form an alliance with Posts & Telecommunications Press, a major publisher in the field of information technology of China. With this alliance, the subsidiary will initiate full-fledged operations in China.
1. Background and purpose of the alliance
@The Chinese book publication market has been growing during the last decade at an average annual rate of around 14%, thanks to expansion in the number of books published in the nation, rise in book prices, and other factors. A survey conducted by China Book Business Report shows the market is expected to expand by 11.8% in Fiscal 2004, and by 13% in Fiscal 2005.
@Impress surveyed its business potential in China for almost two years beginning in 2003. As a result, the subsidiary has decided to enter the Chinese publication market, which it believes will continue to expand in the years ahead following the deregulation and resulting market reconstruction currently in progress.
@Impressf chosen partner in the alliance, Posts & Telecommunications Press, is a major publisher of science and technology supervised by the Ministry of Information Industry, a ministry of the central government of China. The partner publishes magazines and books on electronics and audio technology in China. The publisher has been chosen as gThe General Administration of Press and Publication of The P.R.Chinah by Outstanding Publishing House in China for eight straight years, just one of its outstanding achievements in China. Taking advantage of this new partnership with this prestigious publisher, Impress is determined to build up its business base in the Chinese market.
2. Details of the alliance
@The two corporations, based on the basic partnership agreement signed on July 29, will jointly carry out the business operations listed below. In doing so, they will enjoy synergies from each otherfs competencies, namely, the publishing license in China, publications distribution system, and manufacturing know-how of Posts & Telecommunications Press, and the publication and media business know-how of Impress, whose focus is on books and magazines on information technology.
(1) Publication business
@The two partners will jointly create Chinese editions of information technology books and magazines published by Impress in Japan as well as original publications in Chinese, which will then be published and sold by Posts & Telecommunications Press. The first product of this collaboration is to be a simplified Chinese edition of the gDekiru (You can do it!) Encyclopediash series of computer and software guidebooks, which is already a staple at bookstores all over Japan.
(2) Sales promotion business
@In collaboration, the two will provide sales promotion media planning and production services for those information technology products aimed at the Chinese market. These services are basically meant for information technology businesses operating in China. Already, the two have offered some specific proposals to several Japanese corporations of information technology and begun working on sales promotion booklets to help them in the Chinese market.
3. Future plans
@The Impress Group plans to expand its existing operations in the Chinese market, spread IT information from China in the Japanese language, and build up an outsourcing center of production and manufacturing services to be provided by locally-hired Chinese employees, among other operations. The Group is currently setting up local subsidiaries in China in order to facilitate those operations, more details of which will be announced as they become fixed.
@The new alliance and the future plans announced herein are expected to have little impact on the Groupfs consolidated business results for the fiscal year ending in March 2006.
About Impress Corporation <http://www.impress.co.jp/>
@Impress Corporation is a media company providing contents and services pecialized in information technology. Its Print Media Business is renowned for the gDekiru (You can do it!)h series of PC guidebooks, monthly magazines such as gDOS/V POWER REPORTh and gINTERNET magazine,h and other publications. Its Digital Media Business runs gImpress Watch,h a website dedicated to information technology and consumer electronics, and gImpress TV,h an Internet broadcast station. Through both of these lines of business, Impress Corporation provides cross-media contents and services of high added value to meet modern demands.
@In October 2004, Impress Corporation spun off as a new corporation from Impress Holdings, Inc. (First section of the TSE; Stock code: 9479; Headquartered at Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Founded in April 1992; President: Keiichiro Tsukamoto) to take over all the media business of the holding company. Impress Corporation now plays the leading role in the whole information technology business of the Impress Group.
About the Impress Group <http://impress.jp/>
@This is a media business group with Impress Holdings, Inc. as the holding company. The Group publishes highly specialized information in four major fields, namely information technology, medical science, music, and designing, through its two major lines of business, Digital Media Business and Print Media Business.
