Rocan Leung at Arena
(852) 2951 6612       Fax: (852) 2318 1494
e-mail: rocan.leung@arena.com

[Hong Kong - June 5th 2000] (http://www.arena.com) Arena, a premium e-commerce service provider from Portsnportals.com, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Ensign Group to connect Ensign's 4,000 shippers onto Arena's global electronic supply chain infrastructure. This will enable Ensign and its shippers to streamline day-to-day logistic processing by using Arena's cutting-edge web-based technology.

Portsnportals.com is the e-commerce operation of Hutchison Port Holdings and delivers full range of e-commerce services covering all aspects of the transportation business. Through Arena, Portsnportals.com delivers an Internet based electronic infrastructure for the global business-to-business vessels procurement and supply chain management.

Under the agreement, Ensign's shippers will be linked to Arena's web-based logistics application to generate shipping orders, review shipping order confirmations, process bill of lading and trade declarations, all with just a click of the mouse. This greatly eliminates inefficiencies with traditional paper based documentation by cutting down the re-keying activity, inputting errors and speeding up turnaround time.

"Our mission is to provide our customers with freight forwarding services of the highest level. This can only be achieved by active and continual improvements in our range and level of services," said Mr. Kelvin Lee, Managing Director of Ensign Group. "The Ensign-Arena partnership is imperative for us to move in line with this goal. It brings Ensign and our customers onto the new ground of e-commerce, enabling us to serve them better at reduced costs."

Dave Lee, General Manager of Arena said, "The Ensign agreement is further evidence of Arena's leadership in Hong Kong's e-logistics marketplace. We target to have one fourth of Hong Kong shippers on our web-enabled logistics infrastructure by the end of 2000. We believe Arena will become the de-facto standard of electronic supply chain infrastructure in the near future."

According to the statistics of TradeLink, there are 70,000 shippers and 400 freight forwarders in Hong Kong. Over 90% of them are SMEs, who are prohibited by cost factors from entering the e-commerce door. Arena is the answer for the SMEs by providing a low cost web-based logistic option for them to reduce shipment transaction hassles thereby supplementing their ever-squeezed profit margins.

NOTES TO EDITOR:

Arena was established in 1994 and is the vehicle through which portsnportals.com, the e-commerce operation of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), delivers a paperless, borderless Internet-enabled electronic infrastructure for the global business-to-business vessel procurement and supply chain management. As the global leader in supplies procurement for sea vessels, Arena currently has over 15,000 members in 33 countries and is helping shipping lines and ship management companies to radically improve their trade and delivery process to vessels. More information about Arena can be found at http://www.arena.com

The Ensign Group was founded in 1986 as an international freight forwarder and logistics services provider. Since then, the group has grown to be one of the largest of its kind in Hong Kong. With the founding of its head office in Hong Kong, the group has opened the door to the emerging markets in China. At present, the group operates 8 branch offices within China and employs more than 180 highly trained employees in its Hong Kong head office and its other offices in China. More information about Ensign Group can be found at http://www.ensign.com.hk

Issued by Arena