Her Village Enhances NextMart's Direct Sales Business by Gifting its Stake in NextMart Online Catalogue JV and NextMart Incentiv
October 19 2007 - 11:09AM
PR Newswire (US)
NEW YORK, Oct. 19 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-Firstcall/ �C- NextMart, Inc.
(OTC:NXMR) (BULLETIN BOARD: NXMR) , a Chinese direct sales company,
announced today that Her Village Media ("HV") has enhanced the
Company's direct sales business by gifting its 50% stake in
NextMart Online Catalogues ("NM Online Catalogues"), a 50-50 joint
venture established by the Company and HV
(http://www.hervillage.com.cn/) in June 2007. HV will transfer its
50% stake in NM Online Catalogues to the Company (for a
consideration of US$1) as a goodwill measure to enhance the
Company's operations for building China's leading direct sales
platform using E-Fashion Catalogues. As a result of the gift,
NextMart will now own 100% of NM Online Catalogues, but grant HV an
8% commission on sales generated through its direct sales channels
per the original joint venture agreement between the parties.
NextMart will retain access to HV's E-Magazine production
capabilities, media promotion channels, and e-magazine
distribution, which currently measures approximately 49 million
visitors/month with the majority of these visitors being women
professionals. Going forward, NextMart will deploy NM Online
Catalogues as one of the Company's key channels for selling women's
clothing directly to urban female consumers throughout China. The
Company is also building up direct sales channels on the internet
through e-commerce partnerships with large shopping malls and
offline through a partnership with Shanghai Guifuren, China's well-
known women's clothing retail chain. The Company's enhanced
strategy is to develop an integrated online-offline direct sales
model that will drive its main business growth, and fully leverage
the Company's fashion design, brand management and apparel
production capabilities. NextMart also announced today that it has
taken steps, along with its largest shareholder, Sun Media
Investment Holdings ("SMIH"), to further incentivize Mr. Ren
Huiliang, the Company's CEO and Vice Chairman. Among the incentives
offered to Mr. Ren are: Compensation from NextMart, Inc. NextMart
will change the payment terms of the original Sales and Purchase
Contract by which NextMart acquired William's Brand Administer Co.,
Ltd from Mr. Ren. The Company will now offer Mr. Ren all pending
3,491,379 performance shares at once rather than issuing these
shares to him in several installments over a three-year period. The
Board determined that this modification to the original agreement
was fair given that: (1) The Company's current stock price has
changed substantially since time of the signing of the William
Brand acquisition agreement in April, 2006; and (2) Mr. Ren
deserves a strong incentive package since he and William's Brand
play a leading role within NextMart's operations. Despite these
changes in the payment terms of the William Brand acquisition, Mr.
Ren and William's Brand still remain obligated to the Company to
attain revenues of $15 million USD, $17.5 million USD, and $20
million USD and profits of $3 million USD, $3.5 million USD and $4
million USD in the three years following the completion of the
acquisition. NextMart has further committed to Mr. Ren that should
the Company decide to purchase Shanghai Guifuren, the Company's
sales partner in the retail space, Mr. Ren will be entitled to
additional stock compensation in the Guifuren subsidiary that
carries a retail focus. Compensation from SMIH. As previously
disclosed, SMIH will incentivize Mr. Ren by pooling 10 million of
its NextMart shares into a 50%-50% joint venture owned by SMIH and
Mr. Ren. At the same time, Mr. Ren will contribute his 4 million
shares in NXMR (1,163,793 already issued plus the above issuance of
3,491,379 shares) to this joint venture and further contribute an
additional 6 million NXMR shares (or its equivalent value) to the
joint venture over the next three years. In addition, should
William Brand fulfill all of its revenue and profit guarantees to
NextMart (listed above) over the next three years, SMIH will
further reward Mr. Ren by pooling an additional 2 million NXMR
shares into the JV. Dr. Bruno Wu, Executive Chairman of NextMart,
Inc. commented, "In recent months, we have moved assertively to
complete our corporate restructuring and ensure that our senior
management, namely Mr. Ren, is fully incentivized to execute our
direct sales vision in the women's fashion/apparel and retail
sector. To support our business and best reflect our enhanced
corporate structure, we have changed our fiscal year end from March
31 to September 30. This will best position us for a strong year of
growth in the upcoming fiscal year, as we develop our online and
offline sales channels under the strong leadership of Mr. Ren." For
more information, please contact: Emilie Deng Email: DATASOURCE:
NextMart, Inc. CONTACT: Emilie Deng at
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