A Beijing-based electronic payments and media company backed by U2 manager Paul McGuinness and developer Seán Mulryan has secured a deal to sell phone top-up services for China Mobile in Beijing, host of this year's Olympic Games.
CEC Unet, formerly known as Sun 3C Media, has moved away from TV shopping to concentrate on China's booming mobile phone business.
Domiciled in Dublin and listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London, the company is already providing top-up services in the provinces of Henan and southern Guangdong.
In addition to Mr McGuinness and Mr Mulryan, the firm's Irish backers include Dublin businessman John McKeon.
Former AIB banker Gerry O'Mahony and former PwC accountant Tom Jones are non-executive directors. The firm is chaired by Chen Zhaobin, former vice-president of China Mobile.
CEC Unet said yesterday that its daily revenues stood at £420,000 (€563,420) in the two provinces last month, a figure which equates with an annualised run-rate of more than £146 million per year.
The company plans to capture market share in Beijing, China's capital, by "moving quickly" to sign up retail outlets that will serve as its sales agents.
The deal yesterday was with China Mobile (Beijing). This firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, the dominant Chinese mobile phone company.
"Beijing is an important market to us both symbolically and strategically, because it is our nation's capital and host to the 2008 Olympic Games," said CEC Unet chief executive Li Gang. "We anticipate strong growth here in 2008, and plan to use the footprint we establish to expand into other northern Chinese provinces in 2008 and 2009."
