Strawbear Entertainment Group — Earnings Release 2000

Apr 14, 2000

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited takes no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, makes no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaims any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

Group

(INCORPORATED IN HONG KONG WITH LIMITED LIABILITY)

UNAUDITED 1999/2000 FINAL RESULTS

This decision to announce the unaudited 1999/2000 final results of AEON Credit Service (Asia) Company Limited (the "Company") is due to the immediate holding company, AEON Credit Service Co., Ltd., a company listed on the main section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, announcing the Group's consolidated 1999/2000 final results to the public. As certain accounting items of the Company are disclosed, a similar announcement is made in Hong Kong to ensure that the Company's shareholders receive similar and timely information.

The audited 1999/2000 final results of the Company will be announced on April 19, 2000.

RESULTS

The Directors of the Company are pleased to announce the unaudited results of the Company for the year ended February 20, 2000, together with the comparative audited figures for the previous year as follows:

Year ended February 20,

2000 1999

(Unaudited) (Audited)

HK$'000 HK$'000

Operating revenue (Note 1) 827,374 750,632

Profit before taxation 207,020 173,787

Net profit for the year 180,020 146,390

Earnings per share (Note 2) 47.29 cents 38.45 cents

Notes:

(1) Operating revenue

Year ended February 20,

2000 1999

(Unaudited) (Audited)

HK$'000 HK$'000

Interest income 746,455 684,362

Other operating income 80,919 66,270

Total 827,374 750,632

Other operating income includes bad debt recovered of HK$2,263,000 (1999: HK$2,783,000). This amount will be set off against charge for bad and doubtful debts in the audited results. Last year's comparative figure for other operating income has been adjusted to conform with current year's presentation.

(2) Earnings per share

The calculation of earnings per share is based on the net profit for the year of HK$180,020,000 (1999: HK$146,390,000) and on the weighted average number of 380,696,000 (1999: 380,770,000) shares in issue during the year.

BUSINESS REVIEW

Principal of new loans and advances granted to customers for the year ended February 20, 2000 amounted to HK$3,336,827,000, an increase of 2.1% when compared with that of last year.

Operating revenue was HK$827,374,000 compared to HK$750,632,000 for the previous year, which was attributed to the increase in interest income from credit card operation and personal loan business and the increase in commission income from hire purchase transactions.

With the exercise of a tight control on operating expenses, net profit for the year increased by 23% to reach HK$180,020,000.

We have successfully recruited 110,000 new cardholders in the past year, with the number of cardholders reaching 615,000 as at February 20, 2000. The new cardholders were mainly recruited through our newly launched BatmanTM Card and the AEON Toys"R"Us MasterCard and also through our AEON Jusco MasterCard.

The Company is committed to provide quality service and innovative products to its customers. During the year, we launched the members loan with unemployment insurance, which resulted in the boost up of sales volume for personal loan business. Moreover, we use our newly set-up call center to offer direct sales and provide instant approval process for hire purchase transactions and through the collaboration with various merchants, the sales volume generated reached approximately HK$70,000,000.

By Order of the Board

Kazuhide Kamitani

Managing Director

Hong Kong, April 13, 2000

The above announcement is a summary only. For the full version of this announcement, please refer to the open code 'Latest Company Announcements' page on the GEM website at www.hkgem.com.

"Please also refer to the published version of this announcement in the Hong Kong Standard"