Major Shareholder:

• Taiwan Vedan ¡V 31.61% interest
• DBS Bank ¡V 13.85% interest

Company Subsidiaries:

• Vietnam Vidan (100%): Operates Phuoc Long complex and Phuoc Thai Complex
• Xiamen Mao Tai (100%): Operates Maotai complex
• Orsan (100%): Operates Orsan Complex

The Group is one of the leading producers of fermentation-based food additive products in Asia in terms of production capacity. The Group operates integrated production facilities in Vietnam for the production of different kinds of fermentation-based food additive and biochemical products, cassava starch based industrial products and specialty chemical products. The production facilities are located in the PRC. Most of the products are marketed under the ¡¥¡¥VEDAN '' brand name.

As at the Latest Practicable Date, products produced by us could be broadly categorized into: (i) fermentation-based food additive and biochemical products, such as MSG, GA products and lysine; (ii) cassava starch-based industrial products, such as native starch, modified starch and glucose syrup; (iii) specialty chemical products; and (iv) beverages. The total sales of our fermentation-based food additive and biochemical products amounted to approximately US$148.9 million, US$147.6 million and US$167.6 million for each of the Track Record Periods, respectively, representing approximately 90.9 per cent., 90.5 per cent. and 91.7 per cent. of our total turnover for the same periods, respectively.

The fermentation-based food additive and biochemical products and cassava starch-based industrial products have a wide range of applications in food, textile, paper, cosmetic and aquacultural industries, and are principally sold in Vietnam, the PRC, Japan, Taiwan and the ASEAN countries.

The Directors believe that the Group has the following competitive advantages:

• Established player in the MSG industry
• Cost competitiveness
• Technology know-how and expertise
• Dedicated and experienced management team

• Reliance on major customers;
• Reliance on certain major suppliers;
• The Group require large amount of principal raw materials and fuel oil to support production activities;
• The Group is in various connected translations with the Taiwan Vedan Group and the business of the Taiwan Vedan Group may compete with us;
• The Group may face potential product liability claims;
• The Group is required to comply with the increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations;

MSG products of the "VEDAN" or "VEDAN" brand name have been produced and sold by Taiwan Vedan in Taiwan since 1960s and have been sold to end users in Vietnam, the PRC and the ASEAN countries since 1970s. To further explore the markets in Vietnam and the ASEAN countries, Vietnam Vedan was established as our principal production base. Xiamen Mao Tai was also acquired by Ordino in December 1995 to explore the PRC market.

Leveraging on the core technology know-how, The Group intends to develop new fermentation-based food additive and biochemical products with high growth and high profit margin. The Directors consider diversification of our existing product mix to be an area for growth in the future. The Directors plan to complete the construction of the PGA production facilities by the end of 2004.

The Group will continue to leverage on the advantage to access to abundant and inexpensive supply of raw materials with starch content to develop other cassava starch-based industrial products with high profit margin, such as modified starch, glucose syrup, high fructose syrup and bio-degradable plastics.

The Group will selectively expand and upgrade the production facilities to increase cost efficiency and profitability. For example, the co-generation power plants will be fueled by natural gas in order to reduce the reliance on fuel oil. The Group plan to construct raw material processing facilities at the locality of raw materials to save transportation cost and to increase operational efficiency.

The net proceeds from the Placing, after deducting the related expenses, are estimated to amount to approximately HK$247.3 million (based on the offer price HK$0.89 per share). The Group at present intends to apply the net proceeds as follows: