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SCMP Reporter

OVERSHADOWED by financial information giants such as Dow Jones and Telerate, a Hong Kong-developed Web site is quietly making its mark providing investors with timely, authentic company information in Asia.

 US-trained accountant Alison Chow and four other Internet devotees invested $8 million two years ago to create the site irasia.com, which attracts 30,000 hits a day.

 The site is different in the way it focuses on Asian stocks and in that information comes from the companies themselves.

 'The information is unedited and investors can draw their own conclusions,' said Ms Chow.

 About two-thirds of locally listed companies already have signed up to send financial information. Viewers around the world then can gain free access to timely information on the Internet.

 'The idea is that it provides information in a central location and using a unified format,' Ms Chow said.

 Information includes company profiles, annual reports, interim reports, press releases and a database covering almost 2,000 Asian firms.

 An area irasia.com is anxious to expand is the posting of listing prospectuses on the Internet.

 Geographically speaking, the site's coverage is strong in Hong Kong. Ms Chow said there were difficulties in lining up the remaining 200 companies either through absence of a local office or information not being easily available.

 She said: 'If we don't have it, nobody will have it free.'  In the mainland, preliminary discussions have been held with stock exchanges on obtaining information from listed companies. The firm also has frequent marketing trips to other Asian countries to widen coverage.

 The partners have yet to see any return on their investment as they plough back profits.

 Irasia.com - which stands for investor-relations Asia - aims to boost transparency of regional companies.

 'Once they need to raise funds in the global markets, they begin to know the importance of establishing relations,' Ms Chow said.

 'The Web site serves as a directory to enable investors to get information. Companies begin to realise how it can help them to access and communicate with target consumers.'  Ms Chow said the company had no plans to charge viewers for information.

 Neither does it want to be involved in stock trading to avoid conflict of interest.

 The bulk of income is from company subscriptions, which range from $8,000 for posting of annual and interim results to $18,000 yearly for full-year announcement packages. More comprehensive packages cost $60,000 a year.

 It also offers peripheral services, including a question-and-answer forum hosted by companies and a selected audience at a set-up fee of $6,000 per forum.

 Advertising contributes about 5 per cent of the income. In June, the average daily page views was 30,000, of which 42 per cent of the viewers were from Hong Kong, 29 per cent from North America and Europe, and 25 per cent from rest of Asia.



SAR-based Web site focuses on regional business information