New Jointly Owned Entity to Provide Authoritative Evaluations and Rankings for China's Real Estate Industry
SHANGHAI, June 1 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China Real Estate Information Corporation ("CRIC" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: CRIC), a leading provider of real estate information, consulting and online services in China, today announced that it has reached a framework agreement with the China Real Estate Research Association ("CRERA") and the China Real Estate Association ("CREA") to form an exclusive cooperation to provide evaluations, rankings, indexes, ratings and related services for China's real estate industry.
Under the cooperation framework agreement entered into by CRIC, CRERA and CREA, a new entity jointly owned by CRIC, CRERA and CREA will be established with CRIC holding a 51% interest. The new entity will provide evaluations, rankings, indexes, ratings and other services covering the Chinese real estate and home furnishing sectors, including among others, evaluations, ratings and rankings of China's real estate developers, ratings of publicly listed real estate companies and evaluation and promotion of new materials and technologies in the real estate industry such as low-carbon materials. The results of these evaluations, ratings and rankings will be officially endorsed on an exclusive basis by CRERA, CREA, China Real Estate Rating and Evaluation Center, a unit of CRIC, E-House Research and Training Institute, a unit of E-House (China) Holdings Limited (NYSE: EJ), and in some cases by a unit of China's Ministry of Construction. CRERA and CREA will provide assistance in data collection related to these services while CRIC's http://www.dichan.com , a leading website for real estate industry professionals, will be the first and exclusive site to release the results of the evaluations, ratings and rankings.
"We are very excited about our cooperation with CRERA and CREA," said Mr. Xin Zhou, CRIC's co-chairman and chief executive officer. "As a leading provider of real estate information and consulting services in China, CRIC provides information, research, evaluation, rating and ranking services for China's real estate industry. Our cooperation with CRERA and CREA is a display of confidence by the two leading and authoritative industry associations and will enhance our brand as a provider of comprehensive, impartial and authoritative research, evaluations, ratings, rankings and indexes for the real estate and home furnishing sectors. We aim to expand our services and generate future revenues related to these services."
About CRIC
China Real Estate Information Corporation ("CRIC") (NASDAQ: CRIC) is a leading provider of real estate information, consulting and online services with a presence in over 100 cities across China. CRIC, a subsidiary of E-House (China) Holdings Limited (NYSE: EJ), merged with the online real estate business of SINA Corporation (NASDAQ: SINA) upon the completion of CRIC's initial public offering and listing of its ADSs on the NASDAQ Global Select Market in October 2009. Leveraging its proprietary, advanced and comprehensive real estate information database and analysis system, CRIC provides a broad range of real estate-related services to all participants in the real estate value chain, including developers, suppliers, agents, brokers, service providers and individual consumers. CRIC's services include subscription-based information services, customized consulting services and online services through several real estate websites that provide region-specific real estate information and access to online communities. For more information about CRIC, please visit http://www.cric.com .
Safe Harbor: Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "likely to" or other similar expressions. The Company has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that it believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Among other things, the quotations from management in this press release, as well as CRIC's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. CRIC may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about CRIC's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements and are subject to change, and such change may be material and may have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition and results of operations for one or more periods. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained, either expressly or impliedly, in any of the forward-looking statements in this press release. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, a severe or prolonged downturn in the global economy, CRIC's susceptibility to fluctuations in the real estate market of China, government measures aimed at China's real estate industry, failure of the real estate services industry in China to develop or mature as quickly as expected, diminution of the value of CRIC's brand or image, CRIC's inability to successfully execute its strategy of expanding into new geographical markets in China, CRIC's failure to manage its growth effectively and efficiently, CRIC's failure to successfully execute the business plans for its strategic alliances and other new business initiatives, CRIC's loss of its competitive advantage if it fails to maintain and improve its proprietary CRIC system or to prevent disruptions or failure in the system's performance, CRIC's failure to compete successfully, fluctuations in CRIC's results of operations and cash flows, CRIC's reliance on a concentrated number of real estate developers, natural disasters and outbreaks of health epidemics such as the H1N1 flu and other risks outlined in CRIC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and CRIC does not undertake any obligation to update any such information, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries please contact:
In China
Penny Pan
Manager, Investor Relations
China Real Estate Information Corporation
Phone: +86-21-6086-8111
Email: ir@cric.com
Derek Mitchell
Ogilvy Financial, Beijing
Phone: +86-10-8520-6284
Email: derek.mitchell@ogilvy.com
In the U.S.
Jessica Barist Cohen
Ogilvy Financial, New York
Phone: +1-646-460-9989
Email: jessica.cohen@ogilvypr.com
