Michelle Lu, General Manager
Group Corporate Affairs, Hutchison Port Holdings
Tel. 2619 7557 Fax: 2612 0083
E-mail: gca@portsnportals.com
27 March 2000

[Hong Kong, 27 March 2000] The Hutchison Whampoa e-business revolution continued today with the announcement by Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH) of a newly established e-commerce business called portsnportals.com.

Portsnportals.com is to be the e-commerce service delivery brand under which HPH will provide existing and future e-business services and products.

Group Managing Director of Hutchison Whampoa and Chairman of HPH, Mr. Canning Fok, said the establishment of portsnportals.com marked another milestone in the evolution of Hutchison's e-commerce strategy.

"Hutchison is committed to remaining at the forefront of business development and these days this means enhancing our e-commerce capabilities. It is testament to this commitment that we have been able to build sustainable e-commerce partnerships with so many businesses around the world," Mr. Fok said.

The Group Managing Director of HPH, John Meredith, said the most distinguishing feature of portsnportals.com is that it starts life with real substance as the e-commerce services and products that it encompasses are already in existence.

"HPH already delivers very successful, innovative and cutting-edge e-commerce services to thousands of clients, of which arena.com is probably the most well known and respected," Mr. Meredith said.

Mr. Meredith said that the genesis of portsnportals.com was the need to bring together under one identifiable brand for service delivery the existing and planned e-commerce services and products of HPH so that greater synergy could be achieved between them.

"Everyone involved in the maritime, ports, transport or logistics industries will now know they need only visit the portsnportals.com site and they can link to the e-commerce service product they need," Mr. Meredith said.

"Whether your business need is in marine procurement, freight forwarding or cargo processing, portsnportals.com provides a one-stop-site wherein the e-commerce product and service you need can be located," Mr. Meredith said.

Mr. Meredith said portsnportals.com will become synonymous with ease and excellence in e-commerce for global trade and it will continue to establish strategic partnerships with businesses as it further expands its e-commerce service delivery capabilities.

Portsnportals.com will deliver the following e-commerce service products:

• Arena, which is an Internet-enabled electronic infrastructure for the global business to business procurement of goods and supply chain management. Arena has more than 4,000 subscriber customers in 33 countries;

• Tradelink, a joint venture between the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and several companies to effect paperless customs clearance and other transactions relating to goods being transported into and out of Hong Kong;

• Global Transport eXchange (GTX) is a neutral and secure global e-commerce community where buyers and sellers of logistics and transportation capacity can meet and transact. GTX is a joint venture between portsnportals.com and Oracle, the leading supplier of software for information management. Buyers of logistics, such as industrial manufacturers, retailers, or even other Internet business to business trade portals can now get real-time prices on logistics services that are most tailored to their needs.

• Maritime Cargo Processing (MCP) which was established in 1985 to manage, market and develop advanced port community systems, enhancing the flow of imports and exports at ports, inland clearance depots and airports in the United Kingdom.

• Bolero is a joint venture between the world's banking and logistics communities and offers a secured message infrastructure for financial settlements between banks and transport merchants. It is a standard recognized and accepted legally by many financial institutions.

• WEBies is an internet productivity enhancement tool to facilitate operational information exchange between shipping lines and terminals covering such activities as pre-advice, change of destination / change of vessel (COD/COV) application, late-come application, enquiries and reports concerning containers and movements.

• StarNet is also designed specifically for the shipping community and provides a comprehensive operational management system which covers every critical function required to operate a shipping line business.

Notes to Editor

HPH is an independent port investor, developer and operator with global interests in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Today, HPH operates a total of 120 berths in 18 ports along with a number of transportation related service companies. With industry recognized core competence in effectively and efficiently managing and operating container ports, the HPH Group handled over 18 million TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent units) in 1999.

Portsnportals.com, the e-commerce operations of Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH), is dedicated to helping businesses adapt to the future of global trade by transferring information across the vast expanses of the Internet.