Shanghai, China, June 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CLPS Incorporation (the "Company" or Nasdaq: CLPS), a leading information technology consulting and solutions service provider focusing on the banking, insurance and financial sectors in China and globally, today announced its strategic investment in Lihong Financial Information Services Co., Ltd. ("Lihong”), an internet lending platform company in China.
The Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Qiner Co., Limited, signed a shareholder agreement (the “Agreement”) with Lihong dated as of June 19, 2018, pursuant to which, the Company acquired a 2.7% ownership stake in Lihong in consideration for the purchase price of RMB 1 million. In addition, the Company’s will be entitled to appoint one representative to Lihong’s Board of Directors, effective as of the date of this investment.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Shanghai, Lihong is an investment stage Internet lending platform company in China. The platform facilitates small and mid-sized PRC banks providing consumer loans with insurance policies acting as debt collateral. Lihong receives a per-transaction fee which is generally contingent upon the size of loan transaction, as well a fixed maintenance fee.
Mr. Raymond Lin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CLPS Incorporation, commented: “Following the success of our recent initial public offering and listing of our securities on the Nasdaq Stock Market in May, we are excited about this opportunity to invest in Lihong. As specialists in financial information technology, we view Lihong as a promising emerging business with complementarities to our core competencies with a potential for future growth.”
“Our minority stake in Lihong stands for our expanding footprint in the domestic (PRC) lending Fintech industry,” added the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Tian van Acken. “We believe that this investment will increase our penetration of the SME and second-tier domestic lending industry. We expect to benefit from client referrals resulting from this investment as we design and deliver our value-added solutions based upon our expertise servicing international banks and insurance companies with IT consulting and solution services to smaller institutions. We envision Lihong’s fee based model as a prototype for future solution based products by CLPS and expect Lihong to leverage our extensive R&D and sophisticated infrastructure knowledge to improve its platform. We look forward to Lihong’s growth and intend to support it and enhance it as opportunities arise,” Ms. van Acken concluded.
About CLPS Incorporation
Headquartered in Shanghai, China, CLPS Incorporation (the "Company") (Nasdaq: CLPS) is a global leading information technology (“IT”), consulting and solutions service provider focusing on the banking, insurance and financial sectors. The Company serves as an IT solutions provider to a growing network of clients in the global financial industry, including large financial institutions in the US, Europe, Australia and Hong Kong and their PRC-based IT centers. The Company maintains eleven delivery and/or research & development centers to serve different customers in various geographic locations. Mainland China centers are located in Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Tianjin, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The remaining four global centers are located in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia. For further information regarding the Company, please visit: http://ir.clpsglobal.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including, among others, the Company’s ability to leverage and capitalize upon the complementary nature of the Lihong investment. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs, among other factors. . Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.