MONTREAL, Quebec, Dec. 11, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:PKK) (Pink Sheets:PKKFF) ("Peak" or the "Company") today announced that its acquisition target, LongKey Hong Kong Limited ("LongKey"), has taken an important step to accelerate the growth of its internet financial services (IFS), offered in conjunction with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ("ICBC"), by sending 20 of its employees to work directly from ICBC's Hangzhou offices.
The move to have the 20 LongKey employees work from ICBC's offices came at the request of ICBC and is intended to speed up the setup process to get as many manufacturers registered on the IFS platform as soon as possible. ICBC has over 2 million manufacturing clients, including approximately 100,000 in the province of Zhejiang alone, of which about 5,000 are currently on standby to be setup and registered on the platform. Each ICBC manufacturing client has on average about 80 small businesses and entrepreneurs who purchase products from them. There are currently over 400 registered manufacturers and 2,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs using the IFS platform.
"When we met with ICBC and came up with the concept for the IFS platform, we had no doubt that it would be well received by the manufacturers and those who buy from them," commented Liang Qiu, LongKey's CTO and head of the IFS project. "However, we underestimated just how positive the response would be, both from the manufacturers and their reseller partners. We never expected to have a backlog of manufacturers waiting to be setup on the platform so soon after the launch of the project. It's obviously in our collective best interests to get them setup as soon as possible, and having some of our employees work directly within ICBC's premises is an important step to allow us to achieve that goal," concluded Mr. Qiu.
About LongKey's IFS Product Offering
LongKey and ICBC first launched the IFS project in the city of Hangzhou, considered China's e-commerce hub and where Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba's headquarters are located. The IFS offering is changing how Chinese small businesses and entrepreneurs order products directly from manufacturers to resell them online at a profit. Instead of placing orders via phone or fax, the IFS platform allows them to use a web interface to place their orders from ICBC's manufacturing partners. This allows ICBC to analyse the data entered and generated by the platform to help qualify them for loans and lines of credit from ICBC. These small businesses and entrepreneurs pay a RMB1,000 (CAD$180) annual fee to use the platform. ICBC's manufacturing clients pay a RMB10,000 (CAD$1,800) one-time setup fee and a RMB10,000 (CAD$1,800) annual registration fee to be included in the program. The manufacturing annual registration fee is waived for manufacturers who refer 10 or more small businesses and/or entrepreneurs to the program. All fees payable by manufacturers, small businesses and entrepreneurs related to their use of the IFS platform are payable to LongKey. ICBC's benefits from the IFS program come from the new clients it brings to ICBC, and the fees it earns on the loans, lines of credit and other financial services offered to the program participants.
About Peak Positioning Technologies Inc.:
Peak Positioning Technologies Inc. ("Peak"), (TSX-V:PKK) (Pink Sheets:PKKFF), is a management company whose wholly-owned subsidiary, Peak Positioning Corporation provides Web development services and develops mobile software platforms destined to mobile network operators worldwide. Peak aims to deliver value to its shareholders by assembling a portfolio of high-growth projects and companies in the mobile, e-Commerce, and cloud-computing spaces in North America and China. For more information: http://www.peakpositioning.com
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, Inc. nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined under the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release.