Nextnation Eyes India Entry in Six Months

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 October 2006 - Mesdaq Market-listed Nextnation Communications Bhd, which is aiming for a transfer to the Main Board within a year, expects to enter India in the next six months via a joint venture.

Its chief executive officer and managing director Tey Por Yee said the end-to-end mobile application service provider expected talks with a prospective JV partner to be concluded within the six months.

He said Nextnation would focus on its core business of providing application services in India similar to its operations in China, where it has nationwide connectivity with most major mobile operators.

“In China, our joint-venture exercise was through a capital injection of about RM10 million into our partner. We expect the investment in India to closely mirror that in China,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 18 after its AGM and EGM.

He said Nextnation’s business model to enter into JVs or seek acquisitions abroad was to facilitate it to overcome the language, cultural and political barriers.

“Currently, a substantial portion of our revenue comes from operations here (Malaysia). We want the ratio to be 70% overseas contribution by the end of this financial year.”

“Our internal target is for China and India to contribute the majority revenue within three years, as the mobile content potential in these two countries is massive,” said Tey.

Nextnation has penetrated into Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Australia and the Americas over the last 18 months, and recently inked a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia's Tawasul Telecom Co LLC to collaborate in research, development and the provision of Internet and wireless technologies as well as value-added services.

Tey said the move to the Middle East was in line with the group’s overseas expansion strategies.

He said the group, which planned to transfer its listing to the Main Board within the next one year, expected to record a double-digit profit growth this year.

"For the financial year ended April 30, 2006, Nextnation recorded a revenue of RM67.4 million and net profit of RM16.7 million," he said.

About Nextnation

Nextnation‚ a mobile application service provider‚ enables businesses and individuals to access‚ connect‚ and transact across today's complex global mobile networks. Its core product MINDCEP™ Platform is a mobile multimedia communication platform‚ facilitating and enabling mobile data transmission worldwide using WAP‚ MMS‚ SMS and Java technologies. MINDCEP™ is connected to some of the largest premium messaging networks in the world in order to offer a broad range of services from content distribution to mobile m-commerce and place the company at the forefront of this rapidly growing messaging market. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.nextnationnet.com.