ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”), CITIC Group Corporation (headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China; Chang Zhenming, Chairman; hereinafter “CITIC”), Charoen Pokphand Group Company Ltd.. (headquartered in Bangkok of Thailand; Dhanin Chearavanont, Chairman, Chairman; hereinafter, “CPG”), China Mobile Communications Corporation (headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China; Xi Guohua, Executive Director and Chairman; hereinafter “China Mobile”), the leading mobile carrier in China, and Shanghai Information Investment Inc. (headquartered in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China; Yadong Liu, Chairman, hereinafter, “SII”), a company affiliated with Shanghai Municipality, announced today that they have agreed to cooperate for entering the market of cross-border electronic commerce (hereinafter, “cross-border e-commerce”) in China by establishing a base in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Since entering a strategic business alliance with capital participation with the CP Group and the CITIC Group on January 20, 2015, ITOCHU has sought collaborations in a variety of sectors. The size of the cross-border e-commerce market of China has continued to grow, and is expected to expand to approximately 1 trillion yuan (equivalent to approximately 20 trillion yen) in 2018 from approximately 76.7 billion yuan (equivalent to approximately 1.5 trillion yen) in 2013. On the other hand, guarantees for genuine commodities and high-quality after-sales services, as well as high-quality commodities, are in demand in the market. With changing consumer needs, China’s cross-border e-commerce market has great potential qualitatively and quantitatively. Having found that entering this rapidly-growing market will provide a great business opportunity, ITOCHU decided to cooperate with the four companies, which are highly influential in China. ITOCHU will proceed with the four companies aiming to early participation into the market.

Outline of the partner companies

CITIC

CPG

China Mobile Communications Corporation

SII