National Agricultural 20151H Operating Results Up More than Eight-fold

HONG KONG, Aug. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- National Agricultural Holdings Limited ("National Agricultural", or together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"; stock code: 1236.HK) today announced the interim results of the Group for the six months ended 30 June 2015. During the period, the financial leasing business and fund management services related to the 'Agripay' cash settlement system generated satisfactory revenue, with operating results up more than eight-fold to RMB86.3 million. The results show that the Group's developments in financial leasing and agro product trading businesses are bearing fruit, and demonstrate the effectiveness of its strategies in developing its internet finance industry chain.

In the first half of the year, revenue increased by 190.3% to RMB155.2 million, leading the Group's operating results to surge more than eight-fold to RMB86.3 million. Of this, fund management services contributed RMB83.7 million. Financial leasing, together with financial information services and software terminal operations, also brought satisfactory revenues to the Group. Due to a one-off fair value loss arising from the initial recognition of unlisted warrants amounting to RMB424.9 million, loss attributable to owners of the Group amounted to RMB379. 1 million. As this is a non-cash item, it does not have any impact on the Group's cash flow and net assets. Excluding the above-mentioned item, the Group recorded profit of RMB45.1 million for the period.

Mr. Chen Li-jun, Chairman of National Agricultural, said, "During the period, the state showed its continued support for the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers. For example, it proposed to accelerate the development of e-commerce businesses started by supply and marketing cooperatives, and continued to deploy financial resources to the agriculture, rural areas and farmers sector. Riding on the government's supportive policies, the Group was active in developing its two major platforms serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers, namely Agripay, a cash settlement system, and China Agriculture Commodities Exchange via acquisition or in cooperation with prestigious third parties. Furthermore, the Group's business roadmap plan for developing the internet finance industry chain is becoming clearer as it expanded and advanced its business across China. The rapid development of the Group's main business is a testament to the Group's efforts in the past few months."

Rural Financial Service

During the reporting period, Agripay, the Group's major financial leasing and cash settlement platform achieved sound progress. Coopinvest Mengda, which is engaged in financial leasing business in China, began to provide strategic financial and general leasing services to state-owned enterprises, large-size enterprises and other enterprises supervised and guided by the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives system. In addition to establishing long-term in-depth cooperation with the banks with which the Group has already partnered, the Group was also active in building cooperation relationships with banks and financial institutions inside the Beijing area.

In respect of capital management and settlement, the Group's Agripay system operated in a steady manner and was entrusted by China Co-Op Group Company Limited - Dalian Renewable Energy Exchange Company, which plans to adopt the Agripay system to fully manage the capital operation and settlement of its trading platform. In addition, the Group entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with China Innovationpay Group Limited, a leading player in the third party payment industry, to further optimize the Agripay system and to develop a mobile terminal application which will help upgrade its existing payment and settlement system.

Trading in Agro Products and Consolidation

The Group and Guangzhou Commodity Exchange Limited, a subsidiary of Guangzhou Exchange Group Co., Ltd., cooperated in the development, construction, operation and management of the China Agricultural Trading Platform, which was launched this year. As a comprehensive nationwide trading platform for agro-products, it achieved steady operation and an ideal transaction volume, with over 200 members trading more than 100 different types of chemical fertilizers online.

To further enrich and deepen the development of trading platforms, the Group has made a number of strategic arrangements, including the acquisition of a 30% equity interest in Sino-agri Agricultural Machinery to enter into the agricultural machinery market, the proposed acquisition of Guangdong New Co-Op Skyrise Investment to expand into the tea trading platform and urbanization business, and the possible acquisition of the Chengdu West Agricultural Products Wholesale Market. The Group has also entered into a cooperation agreement in relation to the East Northern Asia Logistics Park.

Mr. Chen Li-jun, Chairman of National Agricultural, said, "Despite being new to the agri-related businesses, National Agriculture's initial results are encouraging. Looking ahead, leveraging our existing solid business foundations, the Group will accelerate the development of rural financial services to explore business opportunities for financial products and services in the agricultural products supply chain, as well as to further improve the Agripay system. In the agri-related business, the Group will continue to enrich the varieties of Chinese agricultural trading platforms to attract more dealers and to improve its value-added services in order to build up a spot commodity electronic trading platform comprising agricultural products trading, finance, insurance, warehouse logistics, clearance and other functions.

"Ahead of the future acquisition of our shares by China Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and with the strategic support from the entity, we will continue to merge and integrate high-quality agri-related enterprises within the supply and marketing system in order to push forward the Group's nationwide business expansion and to further optimize the development of the internet finance industry chain so as to deliver greater value for our shareholders," Mr. Chen Li-jun added.

About National Agricultural Holdings Limited

National Agricultural Holdings Limited (1236.HK) is a rural market-based integrated company; its principal businesses include rural financial services, trading in agricultural means of production, urbanization planning, operation and management and high-tech information technology, etc. The Group established Agripay cash settlement system with UnionPay Network; and a trading platform for agricultural products with Guangzhou Exchange Group respectively; as well as developed related mobile applications with well-qualified third-parties. In line with the development of two flagship financial platforms, the Group is actively engaged in a number of acquisition projects, including Sino-agri Agricultural Machinery for developing agricultural machinery trading business; Guangdong New Co-Op for strengthening agricultural product trading and urbanization related business; Chengdu West Agricultural Products Wholesale Market for promoting its framework of the nationwide online finance industry chain and etc.

Currently, National Agricultural Holdings Limited is the only oversea-listed supply and marketing system in China and is soon expected to be beneficially held by All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives directly under State council.