BBX expands to China and becomes world’s largest trade and barter network
ASX listed barter exchange company BBX Holdings Limited (BBX) today announced the launch of BBX China via fully owned subsidiary, BBX International Ltd of Hong Kong.

The Chinese operation elevates BBX Holdings to the number one position as the global giant in the fast growing barter industry.

China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing Barter Trade Committee entered into the Master Franchise agreement with BBX International, a wholly owned subsidiary of BBX Holdings Ltd., which subsidiary will retain 20% equity in the new venture.

CEO and Managing Director of the newly formed BBX China operation, Mr Wang Lie, said the 300,000 existing members of the established China trade exchange, JM Dadi Beijing, will be transferred to BBX China over the next twelve months and be serviced from an existing network of 18 regional branches in China with Head Office in Beijing.

“I look forward to the implementation of the BBX model in China with access to real estate, wine and other products from Australia, India and New Zealand. This is a major benefit to our BBX members in China,” Mr Wang said.

BBX Managing Director Michael Touma finalised the deal with Mr Wang and other Chinese officials during his recent visit to China.

“The BBX Internet trading platform, made up of software developed by the BBX Group over the last 14 years – including web barter IT, IPOS, Web Pos, Vines on Line, Auction IT and BBX Trading Post – will be the global facilitator for all BBX trading,” Touma said.

“The franchise will make BBX five times larger than its closest global barter competitor and will offer members worldwide the opportunity to trade with inventories to the value of $40 billion dollars.

“China is the company’s fourth international operation to join the only publicly listed barter management company in the world.

“With the recent expansion to India, we now have the two largest economies in the world under the BBX umbrella.

“Due to the available inventories from BBX China and BBX India, I believe we will have many other barter companies wanting to join the BBX Global Barter Alliance,” He said.

BBX currently has applications or enquiries for International Master Franchises in Mexico, Kuwait, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Iran and Portugal.

“Negotiations with Mr Wang and his associates in China are a milestone in the company’s growth and I look forward to Mr Wang and his management team’s upcoming visit to Australia in November,” he said.

A trade exchange uses trade dollars, which have par value with the local currency, to assign value to the transactions that take place between members. The exchange acts as the third party facilitator and record keeper and issues members with monthly statements showing the purchases and sales they have made during the month. They also use plastic charge cards similar to other credit and debit cards in order to conduct business.

BBX members transacted $146 million in trade for the 2006 financial year, with average trade volume per member in excess of 25,000 BBX Trade Dollars. When this level of trading is achieved by members of BBX China, the global trade volume for the group will reach 8.5 billion BBX Trade Dollars

Internationally, BBX will now service approximately 307,000 Australian, New Zealand, Indian and Chinese member businesses, with offices and/or franchises situated in all mainland states of Australia, the North and South islands of New Zealand, plus 10 regional offices in India and a further 18 offices in China.

BBX can be contacted on 1800 222 229. The website is www.ebbx.com.

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Released for BBX by Dennis Rutzou Public Relations.
For further information contact Dennis Rutzou or Fiona Pennington
on (02) 9413 4244.