$$$$$*** FINANCIAL TELECOM ***$$$$$$$$
FINANCIAL TELECOM
Disclaimer - the views expressed below are taken from company literature and from my own personal opinion. They are presented to provide a beginning point for your own personal due diligence and are not meant to replace your own personal due diligence. They are my own personal views only and I offer no guarantees. In other words, do your own DD, don't rely on mine.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Established in 1983 by a group of professionals in the financial services industry. Specializes in providing application and technology solutions for the dissemination and display of financial information. A primary data vendor of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong Futures Exchange. They are also the Hong Kong marketing agent of S&P ComStock of the McGraw Hill Group and marketing agent of Omega Research (developer of Trade Station). FTL is a business partner of Proactive Technology Limited, a listed company in Hong Kong specializing in voice response systems.
FTL is a pioneer in integrating computing with data transmission. They have invaluable experience in the processing, manipulation and storage of real-time financial data. They have built an extensive data-sourcing network which connects to various financial institutions in Hong Kong and other major overseas exchanges and news agencies. Their client base includes banks, brokerage houses and other financial institutions, corporations and individuals.
COMPANY OPERATIONS
Fintel Data Center
The heart of their products is their proprietary data processing center. At the Data Center heterogeneous protocols are adapted to collect the various kinds of real-time financial market data from all over the world. For instance, RS232 of Satellite reception, X.25 of point-to-point connection and TCP/IP of leased line are all being used for real-time data collection. The use of a sophisticated database design to collect the high volume of information from the multiple sources which can then store and manage the data centrally. The data is then disseminated from the Data Center via four main networks;
Dedicated lines - Fintel Data Feed and SpiderLink Pro
Internet - Fintel Online
Wireless Network - SinoBull Wireless PDA
Voice Network - Fintel Voice Stock Quote Service
The data disseminated can be real-time quote data, delayed quote data, real-time news, historical quotes and a database of listed companies in Hong Kong, Shenzen and Shanghai. The data includes equities, futures, options, indices, foreign exchange, precious metals and news and market commentaries.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Fintel Data feed - Provides real-time stock quotes, global market information and financial news to financial institutions for proprietary applications. It supports almost all types of on-line trading systems and quotation systems. The customers of this service are Banks, brokerage firms, ASP of on-line securities trading services.
SinoBull Wireless PDA - In September 2000 FTL launched the new SinoBull Wireless Personal Data Assistant (PDA) utilizing the most advanced FLEX transmission network to deliver financial and investment related content to investors and financial professionals.
SpiderLink Quote Service - Provides Hong Kong stock information based on the teletex format which gives more in-depth trading details to users. TRADESTATION is an optional add-on software package.
Fintel Online Quote Service - This is a new service launched in 2000. This is a new version of their online quote service called Fintel Online. This service is in soft launch currently with a hard launch date sometime in 2001.
Interactive Voice Response System - The application of automated voice response system which enables customers of banks or brokerage firms to get stock quotes, market information and order status via voice commands on Internet, desktop terminal, wired and wireless phones.
Current revenue breakdown
SinoBull PDA - 38%
Terminal - 32%
Fintel data - 15%
Voice response system - 10%
Internet - 5%
Growth will occur in the SinoBull PDA and Internet area.
FTL'S ROLE IN HARTCOURT DEVELOPMENT
To provide quality real-time market data and financial news for Hong Kong markets which is a concrete part of SinoBull Financial Group's Content Asset for its various distribution channels such as SinoBull CCN Financial T V channel, financial portals, e-finance platforms, wireless quotation and securities trading devices.
To support the operating units in China for the sourcing of overseas financial data and the distribution of Chinese financial data to overseas subscribers.
To provide market intelligence on the financial and IT industry in Hong Kong for Hartcourt's future development in the Internet and securities businesses.
To explore the development of new generations of wireless quotation devices and to expand the wireless PDA technology into the Mainland China market as well.
OUTLOOK
Consolidation and rationalization of the business operation of FTL, GuoMao and Financial TV Channel. To become the number one electronic financial information provider in Greater China in terms of the number of subscribers. Centralization of research and product development and an umbrella branding policy for the SinoBull brand. To develop the 2nd generation of PDA as wireless stock quotation and/or securities trading devices for the China market. Enhanced participation in e-finance platforms, especially with the aspect of online securities trading.
REVENUE PROJECTIONS
2001 - 2,500,000 US$
2002 - 3,500,000 US$
2003 - 4,500,000 US$
When combined with GuoMao and Financial TV the numbers are projected as:
IN USD MILLION
FTL GuoMao FIN TV TOTAL
2001 2.5 2.0 1.0 5.5
2002 3.5 3.5 2.5 9.5
2003 4.5 4.5 4.0 13.0
MY IMPRESSIONS
The FTL presentation in Hong Kong was provided by Stephen Tang, CEO of Financial Telecom Limited. We visited their offices in The Center building which is a VERY impressive building in the financial center of Hong Kong. We were given hands-on demonstrations of the various products and services provided by FTL both on desktops and on the new SinoBull PDA. The move to real-time information is new to the Hong Kong markets and this move plays right into the strategy of FTL. The roll out of the SinoBull PDA was successful and will continue to fuel growth in the wireless market. The other area of large growth will be in the Internet arena. FTL has just soft-launched its Internet product and will have the hard launch later this year. With the Hong Kong data provided by FTL and the mainland data provided by GuoMao SinoBull has the Greater China area covered. FTL is currently #4 in the Hong Kong market and with the advent of the PDA and the Internet products is forecasting a move up to #2. This is an impressive company with a solid foundation. Of course, this is only my personal opinion. |
