HSBC Invests In Sparkice

HSBC Holdings PLC
6 November 2001


                HSBC INVESTS IN SPARKICE B2B TRADING PLATFORM

Sparkice Inc., the Beijing-based online trade facilitator, today announced
that HSBC Holdings plc has invested US$5 million in the company, in exchange
for 5 per cent of its shares, to support the continued development of its
online buying and sourcing platform.

The investment from HSBC will be directed towards the development of an
international settlement system on the Sparkice Global eXchange, a B2B trading
platform which facilitates online procurement of finished consumer products
from China-based manufacturers.

The announcement was jointly made by Sir John Bond, Group Chairman of HSBC
Holdings, and Mr Edward Zeng, Chairman and CEO of Sparkice Inc., today as they
met in Beijing.

Mr Zeng said: 'We welcome HSBC's involvement in Sparkice. With China's entry
to the World Trade Organization, it will become an even more important trading
partner and manufacturing base for many companies around the world. I believe
Sparkice will play a key role in the growth of China's manufacturing
industry.'

Sir John Bond added: 'In addition to our financial investment, we look forward
to working with Sparkice to explore ways in which we can integrate our
financial services with Sparkice's trading platform and extend our online
network.'

Launched in April 2001, Sparkice now has a core client database of more than
2,000 domestic manufacturers and suppliers registered to its Global eXchange.
Some major European and North American buyers have already shown an interest
in Sparkice's service and trials are currently being conducted. Its platform
is supported by technologies from Silicon Valley-based Ariba, Vignette and
Oracle.

Other major companies offering service gateways on the Sparkice platform
include the Bank of China, international insurance giant AIG, Societe Generale
de Surveillance's commodity inspection service and COSCO shipping service.

Notes to editors

1. Sparkice Inc.

Sparkice Inc. is China's leading electronic commerce enabling service and the
Chinese government has named it as one of the country's e-commerce pilot
projects.

Sparkice is a privately held company, with its management team, engineers and
shareholders comprising of members from countries from all over the world.

In addition to being China's only transaction-enabled trading platform,
Sparkice also owns Sparkice I-Cafe and EC123, an online B2C service. The
company is currently consolidating its I-Cafe and EC123 chains into a more
integrated and resourceful online community service network.

2. HSBC Holdings

HSBC Holdings is one of the world's largest banking and financial services
organisations, with assets of US$692 billion at 30 June 2001 and more than
6,500 offices in 78 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific
region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa.