HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 22 March 2022 – Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited (“Tongcheng Travel” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries the “Group”, Stock Code: 0780.HK), an innovator and leader in China’s online travel industry, today announced its audited financial results for the year ended 31 December 2021 (the “period under review” or “FY2021”).

Tongcheng Travel remained resilient and delivered a strong rebound in revenue and net profit in 2021 despite continued headwinds in the domestic market due to the sporadic resurgence of COVID-19 cases in certain cities. Financial highlights for FY2021 with comparative figures of the previous year are as follows:

• Revenue rose by 27.1% to RMB7.54 billion (2020: RMB5.93 billion)
• Adjusted EBITDA climbed by 38.7% to RMB1.90 billion (2020: RMB1.37 billion)
• Adjusted net profit surged by 35.9% to RMB1.30 billion (2020: RMB954.0 million)

Tongcheng Travel also achieved considerable year-on-year growth on operational fronts:

• Adjusted net margin expanded from 16.1% to 17.2%
• Adjusted EBITDA margin rose from 23.0% to 25.1%
• Number of average monthly active users (“MAUs”) grew 34.2% from 191 million to 257 million
• Number of average monthly paying users (“MPUs”) rose 36.1% from 23.0 million to 31.3 million
• Number of paying users in FY2021 (“APUs”) increased by 28.2% from 160 million to 200 million, hitting a record high

Mr. Ma Heping, Executive Director and CEO of Tongcheng Travel, said, “We are pleased to report a year of growth amid challenging market conditions that brought hardship to the travel industry as a whole. Our focus in 2021 was set on achieving deeper market penetration by leveraging our stable and diverse traffic channels, competitive advantages in lower-tier cities, and comprehensive product and service offerings. The thrilling growth in MAUs, MPUs and APUs, which have all reached record highs in our corporate history in the period under review, attested to our business strategy. Going into 2022, while we will remain cautious and adjust our business strategy swiftly to market changes, we expect the domestic travel industry to recover gradually as vaccination rate increases nationwide and as the government announces more supportive measures, the business of Tongcheng Travel will also grow steadily.”

Tongcheng Travel derived its revenues mainly from accommodation reservation services and transportation ticketing services, which accounted for 32.0% and 59.1%, respectively, of its total revenue in 2021. In 2021, revenue from accommodation reservation services rose by 23.8% year-on-year to RMB2.41 billion, while revenue from transportation ticketing services grew by 28.4% to RMB4.46 billion. Benefitted from the rapid development of membership services and advertising services, Tongcheng Travel generated a revenue of 671 million from other businesses, representing a year-on-year increase of 30.0%.

As of 31 December 2021, Tongcheng Travel’s online platforms offered over 9,000 domestic routes operated by over 730 airlines and agencies, over 2.1 million hotel selections and alternative accommodation options, approximately 400,000 bus routes, more than 710 ferry routes and about 8,000 domestic tourist attractions ticketing services. With comprehensive product offerings, Tongcheng Travel further implemented cross-selling strategies across different business lines, including transportation, accommodation, and tourist attractions. The strong analytics capability enables it to provide users with precise and optimal recommendations, optimize user interface displays, and explore different cross-selling scenarios to tap into market potentials.

Expanded traffic channels and served online and offline all-scenario to
accelerate user acquisition

During the period under review, Tongcheng Travel further expanded and utilized its traffic channels within the Tencent ecosystem to explore business potentials. The Company further deepened its cooperation with Tencent during the period under review and co-launched a series of online and offline interactive marketing campaigns by leveraging several widely known IPs authorized by Tencent. These appealed to users, especially those of the younger generation.

To increase its online penetration, Tongcheng Travel collaborated with handset vendors to explore more application scenarios. It enriched the content on its App and optimized the interface. Innovative mobile features such as metasearch and voice assistant functions were launched by the Company to facilitate better user access to the Group’s products and services, thus greatly enhancing user experience. In 2021, Tongcheng Travel was awarded the Most Popular Quick App and Best Partner by one of the most influential handset vendors.

As part of its offline user acquisition initiatives, Tongcheng Travel partnered with hotels, bus operators and tourist attractions to expand its user base. These continued to contribute meaningfully to the growth of paying user base.

Increased the advantages in lower-tier cities and strengthened brand recognition through effective marketing campaigns

Tongcheng Travel continued to penetrate lower-tier cities by expanding its user acquisition channels to more townships across China. It established and strengthened cooperation with urban and rural bus operators to penetrate into counties and towns quickly and effectively. As of 31 December 2021, the registered users residing in non-first-tier cities in China accounted for approximately 86.7% of the total registered users. For the year ended 31 December 2021, about 61.7% of its new paying users on the Weixin platform were from tier-3 or below cities in China.

In 2021, Tongcheng Travel launched an innovative marketing initiative called the “Blind Box of Air Tickets”, which later evolved into a series of merchandise. This initiative has gone viral across social media platforms and earned Tongcheng Travel several marketing awards. It has also drawn a massive number of users of the younger generations to the Tongcheng Travel’s platform and boosted traffic and user engagement.

In an effort to further enhance its brand awareness, Tongcheng Travel increased its marketing and branding investments during the period under review. In addition to multiple online and offline advertising channels, it sponsored several top TV programmes and drama series and appointed a new brand spokesperson who is highly popular among the younger generation.

Committed to promoting the digitization of the travel industry and sustainable growth of
the Company and communities

Technology innovation is one of the core competencies of Tongcheng Travel. The Company continued to develop and apply proprietary technology to transform from an online travel agency (“OTA”) to intelligent travel assistant (“ITA”). During the period under review, Tongcheng Travel further optimized the Huixing system by integrating more supply chain resources such as airplane ticketing, train ticketing, bus ticketing and car-hailing services to provide users with more travel options under different scenarios. Tongcheng Travel also upgraded its AI-driven customer service to improve operating efficiency and established an intelligent customer experience platform to promptly address customer requests. Besides, a range of digitization support has been rendered to its suppliers and business partners. For instance, it also offered SaaS solutions to small and medium-sized hotels in lower-tier cities to help them improve daily operational efficiency. These initiatives are driven to facilitate the digitization of the travel industry as a whole.

Tongcheng Travel is committed to sustainable development, for the Company and for the communities it serves. The Company has set in place a board-level ESG committee and a corporate-level ESG and Data Security Committee during the period under review. It has launched a series of measures such as penalty-free changes or cancellations to provide users with peace of mind during the pandemic. It also provided migrant workers free public transportation service to help them return home safely. Applying its industry and technology expertise, Tongcheng Travel cooperated with Yan’an Airport and a local government in Yan’an to promote local produce there in a bid to revitalize rural areas and facilitate the sustainable development of local economy.

Promising business outlook

As the pandemic continues to accelerate the online penetration of the travel industry, the outlook for online travel agencies is promising. More importantly, the Chinese government encourages and supports the development and digitalization of the travel industry. The State Council has announced a development plan for the travel industry during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), emphasizing the importance of promoting smart tourism with digital and artificial intelligence-powered engagement, as well as expanding the application of new technologies in tourism.

Looking ahead, Mr. Ma said, “Tongcheng Travel will further penetrate the travel market by leveraging our diversified and cost-effective traffic sources to grow our user base and generate more traffic. Utilizing advanced technological innovations, we will also further enhance our products and services and strengthen our technical capabilities to attain higher efficiency and transfer from an OTA to ITA. On top of that, we will adhere to our business strategies and seek investment opportunities. Last but not least, we will integrate economic growth, environmental protection, corporate governance and social responsibility in our business strategies to create sustainable value for our stakeholders and the communities.”

About Tongcheng Travel Holdings Limited (HKSE Stock Code: 0780.HK)

Tongcheng Travel (formerly known as Tongcheng-Elong) is an innovator and market leader in China’s online travel industry. It was formed out of the merger of Tongcheng and eLong, the leading online travel agencies in China, in 2018. It is a one-stop shop for users’ travel needs. With the mission “make travel easier and more joyful”, Tongcheng Travel offers a comprehensive and innovative selection of products and services covering nearly all aspects of travel, including transportation ticketing, accommodation reservation, tourist attraction ticketing, and various ancillary value-added travel products and services designed to meet users’ evolving travel needs throughout their trips primarily through its online platforms, which comprise its Tencent-based platforms, its proprietary mobile apps, quick apps and other channels.

As a technology-driven company, Tongcheng Travel leverages big data and AI capabilities to better understand the preferences and behaviors of users, thereby offering users customized products and services. Tongcheng Travel has a strategic focus on lower-tier cities in China and seized opportunities there supported by its and diversified traffic sources, product innovation capability and flexible operation strategies. Through the in-depth understanding of user experience and advanced technological capabilities, Tongcheng Travel has been revolutionizing what consumers expect from the online travel industry, making the entire travel process more convenient, personalized and enjoyable than ever. Tongcheng Travel aims to develop and apply its advanced technology to transform from an online travel agency to intelligent travel assistant.

For more information, please visit the Group’s website at https://www.tongchengir.com

#TongchengTravel

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 22 March 2022 – NEFIN Group (“NEFIN”), a premium green Independent Power Producer (IPP) offering bespoke carbon neutral technologies & financing solutions in Asia Pacific, today announced its latest project for Goodman Hong Kong. These projects will help advance utilization of renewable energy in the real estate industry and reinforce NEFIN’s mission to achieve carbon neutrality for large corporations across the globe.

NEFIN has completed four projects with the installation of solar photovoltaic system with capacity of 1,468.495 kWp by deploying 3,245 rooftop solar panels across the properties. The fifth project, that NEFIN is currently working on, aims at generating a total energy capacity of 279,279kWh by installing 558 solar panels.

For the upcoming three projects, the goal is to generate a total capacity of 657,283kWh across the properties through the installation of 1,233 rooftop solar panels.

With an extensive network of local partners across the region, NEFIN is positioned to drive total carbon neutrality solutions across borders, and to projects of varying scales, which has contributed to their success in delivering over 3,000MW of commercial and industrial rooftop solar systems and renewable energy systems regionally in its combined portfolio.

“NEFIN is working with a number of MNCs in various industries in attaining their sustainability goals by exploring other solutions like energy efficiency & management systems and renewable energy certificates (RECs). We understand that our clients strive to be leaders in environmental social governance and we will give our full support by offering them the most suitable solution” says Mr. Glenn Lim, Chief Executive Officer of NEFIN Group.

About NEFIN Group

NEFIN Group is a regional renowned carbon neutrality solutions provider and investor with a bespoke unified energy management platform committed to achieve carbon neutrality for organizations and is backed by AC Energy. Founded by a core management team of DuPont Solar Business, the management team has grown into a well-rounded team of engineers, legal experts, investment bankers and techno-commercial experts with the combined experience of over 40+ years of project development in Asia and 50+ years of engineering experience. NEFIN Group has over 3000MW of utility-scale, commercial, and industrial rooftop solar systems in its combined portfolio regionally. As a strong cohesive team, NEFIN Group is able to offer a comprehensive 360-degree assessment and full-suite of services on socially responsible and commercially viable projects through innovative approaches to technology under its unified energy management platform. NEFIN believes the future of the world is everyone’s responsibility and strives to redefine energy boundaries towards a sustainable future. Please refer to NEFIN’s website www.nefinco.com for more information and follow us at linkedin.com/company/nefin.

#NEFIN

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Consumer interests and business resilience central themes in first set of guidelines published by the Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee (ICCSC)

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 22 March 2022 – The Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee (ICCSC) today released its first two papers providing best practice guidelines and recommended initiatives for stakeholders within the insurance ecosystem to elevate the culture and conduct standards of insurance companies, intermediaries (e.g. Financial Advisory Firms), employees, and the insurance ecosystem.

The two Papers[1] are:

• Human Resources Culture and Conduct Best Practices – Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Across the Employee Life Cycle: Outlining best practices in Hiring, Enterprise Training, Consequence Management, and Exit Management
• Corporate Governance Culture and Conduct Best Practices – Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Through Corporate Governance and Systems: Putting forth recommendations on the role of Leadership, Governance & Systems, Capability & Capacity, and Performance Management & Remuneration

Mr Marcus Lim, Assistant Managing Director (Banking & Insurance), Monetary Authority of Singapore, said, “The ICCSC has demonstrated its commitment to promote good culture and conduct within the insurance sector through the publication of these best practices and recommendations. By continually serving the best interests of their customers, insurers and intermediaries reinforce the foundation of trust upon which the industry is built. MAS encourages all firms to take reference from this set of papers and consider how best to apply them to their business so as to better serve their customers.”

Dr Khoo Kah Siang, Chairperson of the Insurance Culture and Conduct Steering Committee (ICCSC) said, “The papers are developed based on extensive research carried out on best practices observed internationally, and inputs from senior practitioners within the industry. We hope that these papers will provide timely and practical guidance to the insurance companies in Singapore to apply and elevate their standards of culture and conduct over time, to maintain public trust and confidence in the insurers.”

“ICCSC will continue to work with the various insurance associations in Singapore to adopt these guidelines as appropriate for their segment. These best practices papers will be reviewed in 12 months to assess the effectiveness of the recommendations for the industry.”

These Papers focus on people, performance, and processes:

• People: From the leadership team to employees and Financial Adviser (FA) Representatives – every individual has a critical role to play in creating a strong culture of good conduct for the benefit of insurance customers. The best practice guidelines and recommendations put forth clear roles and responsibilities of the respective parties in promoting the right culture and conduct in the organisation.
• Performance: Assessment criteria – whether for hiring, reward, or recognition – can be enhanced to include financial and non-financial measures. The performance of the management team, employees, FA representatives and partners in the ecosystem can be raised by having the right training programs and consequence management framework.
• Processes: Recommended enhancements to the governance and ways of working to establish and enforce more robust practices to promote good conduct and the right culture within organisations and the insurance eco-system at large.

“I would also personally like to thank all the ICCSC members as well as contributors in the subcommittees who had volunteered their valuable time towards this important initiative for the industry amidst this challenging COVID-19 period,” Dr Khoo added.

The committee, consisting of senior leaders in the industry, was established in December 2019 to foster sound culture and strengthen standards of conduct among insurers in Singapore.[2] They are supported by the General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA), the Life Insurance Association (LIA) and the Singapore Reinsurers’ Association (SRA).

The ICCSC is currently working on the next best practice paper which will bring a new focus on the conduct of life insurance intermediaries. The aim is to provide practical recommendations on the role of supervisors in setting the right tone from the top and putting in place key performance measures to incentivise FA Representatives to provide customers with high quality financial advisory services. The paper also sets out recommendations to enhance disclosures to customers and information sharing between insurers and non-tied Financial Advisory Firms (FAFs) in order to raise overall standards in the financial advisory industry. This paper is targeted for an April 2022 release.

Appendix 1: Infographic on Human Resources Culture and Conduct Best Practices – Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Across the Employee Life Cycle

Appendix 2: Infographic on Corporate Governance Culture and Conduct Best Practices – Promoting Ethical Culture and Conduct Through Corporate Governance and Systems

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

The new multi-year partnership will see Lightsource bp leveraging Envision Digital’s AIoT platform for Net Zero

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 22 March 2022 – Envision Digital International Pte Ltd (“Envision Digital”), a Singapore-headquartered global Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) software leader for Net Zero, and global solar developer Lightsource bp, have announced a multi-year, global partnership to accelerate the growth and optimisation of solar power, in the fight against climate change.

Lightsource bp is targeting the development of 25GW of solar power projects globally by 2025 delivering renewable power at scale, and with the urgency the climate crisis requires. Through the partnership and the advanced analytics from Envision Digital’s AIoT platform, Lightsource bp will be able to gain data driven insights to enable automation, efficiency, value and ultimately, substantial volumes of additional low-carbon power.

The partnership will see Lightsource bp leveraging Envision Digital’s AIoT platform to optimise the performance and operation of their solar assets. Lightsource bp recognises Envision Digital’s unique expertise in AIoT and digital transformation, and has selected Envision to be its advanced analytics partner for its existing and rapidly growing portfolio of solar projects globally.

Michael Ding, Global Executive Director of Envision, said: “As the global AIoT software leader for Net Zero, Envision Digital continues to focus on partnerships. We see a lot of synergies with Lightsource bp and our teams are rapidly deploying and scaling technology to power the energy transition together.”

Lightsource bp is a 50:50 joint venture with global energy major bp. By leveraging this partnership with Envision Digital, as well as more than a decade of solar experience, the company expects to be able to deliver greater value at scale and enact a real change on the global energy landscape. The 247MW Vendimia project in Spain started generating low-cost power in June 2021. The site created 600 jobs during construction and provides a snapshot of the benefits solar can provide to the economy and the climate.

“Deploying solar power at pace means making the most of projects once they are up and running. It’s not just about the cost of capital and your project execution. Lightsource bp has an exceptional reputation on both fronts and once all that hard work is done, we don’t want to waste a single photon,” said Nick Boyle, Group CEO, Lightsource bp.

“The partnership with Envision Digital gives us an anatomical level of insight on our assets to optimise them remotely and drive improvements,” he added.

Envision Digital’s proprietary AIoT operating system, EnOS™, currently supports more than 360GW of clean energy assets globally. As the partnership develops, and as global governments and corporations quicken net zero discussions, both companies will explore additional opportunities to drive value across Lightsource bp’s expanding portfolio of solar power projects globally.

Editors’ notes:

1. The partnership will include all existing and future Lightsource bp operated assets as well as those under the management of its O&M business.
2. The rollout is underway with Envision Digital and Lightsource bp collaborating on the first batch of projects now.
3. Envision Digital’s AIoT platform EnOS™ provides pre-built decarbonization and digitalization applications and a complete suite of connectivity and device management, application enablement and analytics capabilities, focusing on asset-intensive industries like energy and utilities, manufacturing and transportation. The platform is open-source focused on preventing lock-in effects, supporting on-prem, public cloud, and hybrid cloud deployments to offer ultimate adaptability and flexibility from edge to cloud.
4. In this specific multi-year programme Lightsource bp will use the Intelligent Renewables Advanced Analytics application for Solar, please find out more in our product brief here.
5. The platform and its applications are fully extensible by customers, partners, and Envision Digital. This can be accomplished using both application configuration templates and modern API and micro service based application development techniques.
6. Together with the decarbonization hardware offerings from Envision Group and our ecosystem (renewable generation, energy storage etc), Envision Digital brings integrated solutions that leverage Information Technology (IT), Operation Technology (OT) and Energy Technology (ET) for our industrial clients from hardware manufacturers to energy and utility players or large infrastructure operators.
7. Aiming to abstract the domain expertise to enable transformation in a more efficient and intelligent way, EnOS™ is designed with a model-driven philosophy and provides 3000+ industry device models, 200+ protocol adaptors, 360+ AI models, and various solution templates for intelligent renewables, connected energy, smart spaces and smart plants. Altogether, they help to accelerate the time to solution and transformation.

About Envision Digital

A global AIoT software leader in Net Zero, Envision Digital is committed to becoming the world’s leading net zero technology partner for enterprises, governments, and cities to accelerate progress and improve their citizens’ quality of life.

EnOS™, Envision Digital’s proprietary AIoT operating system, connects and manages more than 110 million smart devices and 360 gigawatts of energy assets globally. Envision Digital’s growing ecosystem of more than 360 customers and partners spans 10 industries and includes Accenture, Amazon Web Services, GovTech Singapore, IBM, Keppel Corporation, Microsoft, Nissan, PTT, Solarvest, Total and ST Engineering. The company has close to 900 employees and 12 offices across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, Thailand, China, and the United States, with headquarters in Singapore.

For more information, please visit www.envision-digital.com/.

About Lightsource bp
Lightsource bp is a global leader in the development and management of solar energy projects, and a 50:50 joint venture with bp. Our purpose is to deliver affordable and sustainable solar power for businesses and communities around the world. Our team includes over 700 industry specialists, working across 17 countries. We provide full scope development for our projects, from initial site selection, financing and permitting through to long-term management of solar projects and power sales to our clients. For more information visit lightsourcebp.com, follow us on Twitter @lightsourceBP and Instagram @lightsourcebp or view our LinkedIn page.

#EnvisionDigital #Lightsourcebp

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.