Teckwah enters online gaming industry with the acquisition of Khabal from Lycos Asia
Asia Pacific's online gaming market was worth approx $919 million in subscriptions last year

SINGAPORE, 16 September 2003 - Mainboard listed Teckwah Industrial Corporation ("Teckwah" or "the Group") today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, EAP Online Pte Ltd ("EAP" or "the Company") has acquired Khabal, the Lycos Asia online gaming site.

Khabal was set up in September 2000 and is presently the largest and most popular online game website in Singapore (Source: Singapore Online Forecast 2002 - 2007)hosting two localized massively multiplayers online role playing games(MMORPG) titles, Redmoon & Prince of Qin. Khabal has an average of about 200,000 unique visitors hitting more than 25million pageviews per month. According to the Q1 Report from IDC, Khabal commands the largest share (about 31.8%) of the online gaming market in Singapore.

Commenting on the Group's latest initiative, Mr Thomas Chua, Chairman says: "This is not a new business area for Teckwah. We have been serving the value chain needs of international gaming companies like Electronic Arts for a long time. The developments today are natural progressions of our existing business alliances. With EAP's online capabilities, we now have the ability to cater to both the physical fulfilments and online distribution needs of our gaming customers."

"The acquisition of Khabal today is very timely. This is a good platform for EAP given that Khabal already has the necessary infrastructure in place and it is also an existing business with a community of online gamers. In addition to ensuring the continuity of the services provided by Khabal to its users, EAP also aims to bring more content to the site to attract more gamers." Mr Chua added.

The Group's online gaming business will be held under the umbrella of its newly incorporated subsidiary - EAP Online Pte Ltd. Following the acquisition of Khabal, EAP will be devoting resources to upgrade the contents that are currently in the Khabal site to reach out to a bigger community of online gamers throughout South East Asia.

EAP, the acronym for Entertainment And Platform, was established on 8th August 2003 as a 100% owned subsidiary of Teckwah.. EAP's main business will be "online distribution". Originating from Singapore, EAP will be looking to expand its footprint into Korea, China, Taiwan as well as other markets in Asia.

Online gaming is a rapidly growing industry globally. The Global game software industry was estimated to be worth approximately US$12 billion in 2000 (Source: Salomon, Smith Barney, Forrestor Research, IDC Dec 01). By the year 2005, IDC expects online gaming to grow to about 13% of the total Electronic Gaming Revenue. Asia Pacific's online gaming market was worth about US$533 million (S$919 million) in subscriptions last year with the biggest online gaming market share going to South Korea. The latter being one of the most mature gaming market in the world, commands about 54% of the market share from among seven countries (South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia) surveyed for the Online Gaming in Asia Pacific (Source: IDC). North Asia comprising China, Taiwan and Hong Kong captured only 45% of the total share in the survey. The growth of the online gaming industry also promises to be a huge revenue generator for vendors in the supply chain.

Recognizing Teckwah's capabilities and knowledge in the value chain business, Electronic Arts in Singapore, the world leading interactive entertainment software company has also appointed EAP as its e-merchant. In its new role, EAP will serve as the logistics arm to deliver online orders booked through Electronic Art's website for South East Asia.