BLUEFOCUS PR Consulting Ltd (SZ: 300058), which became the first Chinese public relations firm to go public when it began selling shares on Shenzhen’s ChiNext (GEM) Board on February 27, announced yesterday that its 2009 revenue rose to 367.6 mln yuan from 327.3 mln a year earlier.
Following its results release yesterday, BlueFocus closed up 6.1% to finish at 53.0 yuan, not a bad climb at all from an IPO price of 33.9 yuan.
This represents a more than 56% valuation increase in a little over a month!
Part of the company’s success is the quality of its clientele.
The Beijing-based firm counts among its clients 25 of the Global Fortune 500 giants, including Royal Dutch Shell, Toyota and China’s own PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd (HK: 0992), which alone has contributed 185 mln yuan to BlueFocus’ revenue over the past 3.5 years.
China’s First Public Public Relations Firm
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BlueFocus,with current market capitalization of 4.2 bln yuan,became on February 27 the first Chinese public relations firm to list domestically.
The company plans to use the over 160 mln yuan raised by selling the 20 mln shares on the five-month old Shenzhen ChiNext (GEM) Board to fund its general business expansion.
The newly-raised capital will certainly come in handy as the firm is not shy about expanding its reach across China and taking on new clients, as long as they are quality companies and make a good match.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Beijing, BlueFocus PR Consulting – part of BlueFocus Communication Group – has two subsidiaries in Guangzhou and Shanghai and 23 regional offices across China employing over 500 people.
And many investors take comfort in the fact that the company has strong exposure to the high-flying IT sector, with Chinese PC and handset maker Lenovo contributing nearly 23% of recent revenue.
In fact, around 50 employees, or one-tenth of the entire BlueFocus workforce, are solely dedicated to serving Lenovo's PR needs.
And if recent accolades are any indication of where this ambitious PR firm is headed, then investors would do well to give BlueFocus a good look.
In the Holmes Report Asia Consultancy Report Card 2008, BlueFocus PR won “Greater China Consultancy of the Year.”
BlueFocus was the only Chinese firm to be mentioned in the competition, and this is no small feat as in its home market of Beijing alone there are over 1,000 firms in the public relations sector.
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