January 9, 2001

For Immediate Release

Hong Kong, 9 January 2001 - bigboXX.com, Hong Kong's premier office and business supplies b2b e-commerce portal wholly owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, announced today the successful achievement of its year 2000 business objectives and its plans for expansion in 2001.

Detailing bigboXX.com's achievements, Sammy Tse, CEO of Hutchison E-Commerce Ltd said, "From our soft launch as recently as April 2000, our business growth has exceeded our expectation and confirmed our confidence in bigboXX.com's rapidly evolving business model. In the 6 months from our full launch last June, bigboXX.com has already captured 15,000 customers, at an average sales growth rate of 30% per month. As a consequence of this success and anticipating the need for bigger capacity, the size of the distribution center at Kwai Chung will be doubled by adding an extra 45,000 sq ft in the first quarter of this year."

In December 2000, it was announced that bigboXX.com won the Certificate of Merit (Application Category) in IT Excellence Awards 2000 organized by Hong Kong Computer Society.

Stephen Winterhalder, COO of bigboXX.com said, "bigboXX.com is the youngest company among the winners of the IT Excellence Awards 2000. Clear product offering, focused operation, accurate fulfillment and an integrated e-commerce solution have been our winning formula. We have built our competitive edge in three main areas. First, we offer a wide range of over 6,000 office and business supplies products at highly competitive prices. Second, we strive to deliver operational excellence by running our own warehouse, delivery vehicles and professional service team. Last but not least, our front-end and back-end operations are fully and seamlessly integrated to allow real-time order processing. We can therefore guarantee our clients competitive pricing as well as next day delivery."

Stephen Winterhalder continued, "Our business model has been proven to be a successful one. We will continue to scale up our operations over the coming months and take full advantage of our technical infrastructure. In early 2001, the website is being further enhanced to provide even better service and higher technical capacity. In February, bigboXX.com will add advanced B2B customized web features such as company specific websites and extra levels of approval to better serve its customers. At the same time regionally, the company is in the final stage of assessing Pan Asian opportunities for expansion."

bigboXX.com has also announced early plans to launch a printing service in the late spring. The office stationery printing market in Hong Kong is lucrative. The market that bigboXX.com is targeting is worth around HK$3 billion a year. Through a network of carefully structured partnerships with a number of offset printers and by running a digital print shop, bigboXX.com will enter into the office stationery printing market. It will also leverage its business model and technological advantage to expand further.

Stephen Winterhalder explained, "We carefully chart our future business as we move along. There is no point offering a service to the market unless you can do it better than others. We only consider business that can add real value to traditional businesses or processes. Digital printing service delivers this by offering an online printing solution with greater efficiency and flexibility to our customers."

For further information, please visit the award-winning site at http://www.bigboxx.com

Notes To Editors:

1. bigboXX.com is a premier office and business supplies b2b e-commerce portal, providing over 6,000 products to more than 15,000 customers in Hong Kong. Dedicated to serving office administration and finance managers, bigboXX.com focuses on providing customers with comprehensive product ranges at highly competitive prices.

2. bigboXX.com operates on a technology platform based on a number of mySAP.com enterprise applications, specifically designed and built for the business.

3. Web features offered include customised favourite items lists, standing orders, group account workflow for multiple users (orderers), authorisation limits, approval workflow, order status tracking (warehouse/transit/delivered), order history analysis by order point/category/product, and payment status of past deliveries.

4. bigboXX.com uses a state-of-the-art e-payment solution provided by HSBC. All financial transactions are direct with HSBC in a completely secure environment and no credit card information will be lodged with bigboXX.com.

5. bigboXX.com's hub for storage, order processing and distribution located in Kwai Chung. The soon to be 95,000-sq-ft Distribution Centre will have over 100 staff and 25 delivery vehicles operating. Orders taken on bigboXX.com are immediately retrieved at the warehouse and processed for next day delivery.

For Further Information: