The Beijing-based company says that approximately 83,000 companies, or approximately 87.4% of all companies in China licensed to use electronic import/export declaration processing, had registered to use its software.
By eliminating manual preparation and the submission of paperwork to government officials in favor of electronic processing over the internet, Ninetowns says companies can cut the time taken for customs declarations from two or more days to as little as an hour.
The company has expanded rapidly and been consistently profitable. In 2003, profit was hit by the CNY 35 million ($4.2 million) cost of stock options to staff, and fell 36.7% to CNY 41.2 million ($4.9 million) while revenue increased 23% to CNY 132.9 million ($16.1 million).
Expansion has accelerated in the first nine months of this year with net income up 213% at CNY 91.2 million ($11 million) on revenue 42.9% higher at CNY 139.2 million ($16.8 million).
It plans to use proceeds from the IPO to set up two new R&D centers, expand its distribution and technical support network, and look at possible acquisitions.
