| 1924 |
POPULAR's history started
in Singapore under the trade name of Cheng Hing Company.
It distributed Chinese story books and pictures. |
| 1930 |
Established World Book Company in Singapore
to distribute Chinese books and later moved into publishing
business. |
| 1936 |
Established Popular Book Company in
Singapore to sell Chinese books. |
| 1949 |
Incorporated World Publishing Company
in Hong Kong to publish magazines and Chinese books for
both local and Asian markets. |
| 1952 |
Set up United Publishing House Pte
Ltd in Singapore and Malaysia to publish textbooks. |
| 1960 |
Incorporated Educational Publishing
House Limited in Hong Kong to focus on the publishing
of Chinese textbooks for Hong Kong schools. |
| 1975 |
Started offering English titles in
Singapore and was positioned as "The Bilingual Bookshop".
Business grew dramatically. |
| 1976 |
Incorporated Kam Pui Enterprises Limited
in Hong Kong to publish general books. |
| 1980s |
Penetrated into public housing estates
in Singapore by setting up a bilingual bookshop chain.
Opened the largest bookshop in Southeast Asia, Popular
Bras Basah Branch. |
| 1984 |
Opened the first bilingual bookshop
in Malaysia. |
| 1990 |
Introduced the POPULAR Card to cultivate
customer loyalty. |
| 1993 |
Expanded the business scope by retailing
music products and audio accessories under the brand name
of "CD-RAMA". |
| 1994 |
Incorporated Popular Book Company (Canada)
Limited in Toronto, Canada in July. |
| 1997 |
Listed Popular Holdings Limited ("POPULAR")
on the main board of The Singapore Exchange. |
| 1999 |
Moved to its own headquarters at 20
Old Toh Tuck Road in March. |
| 1999 |
Opened the buying office in Taiwan
under Popular Book Company (Pte) Ltd, Taiwan Branch. This
branch office was incorporated as Popular Book Co Ltd
in 2003 in view of the business expansion. |
| 1999 |
In September, incorporated a wholly-owned
subsidiary, EPH Publishing (M) Sdn. Bhd., to carry out
publishing activities in Malaysia. |
| 1999 |
In December, incorporated a wholly-owned
subsidiary, Educational Publishing House Limited, in Macau
to undertake publishing activities. |
| 2000 |
In March, incorporated a subsidiary
in China, Guangzhou Cyber Progress Information Limited,
to offer e-enabling services. |
| 2000 |
In July, set up a joint venture, EdnoLand
(HK) Limited, to provide interactive learning programmes
to preschool children. This signified the start of the
Group's e-learning initiatives. |
| 2001 |
In December, incorporated Popular e-learning
Holdings Pte Ltd ("PELH"), which played a leading
role in formulating POPULAR's Strategic Vision for 2002
announced in the same month. |
| 2002 |
In May, PELH took a 51% stake in Town4kids
Limited, a joint venture with Double Click Pte Ltd. This
investment is part of Popular e-Learning's expansion plan
through strategic partnerships with leading e-learning
companies. |
| 2002 |
In July, with the growing publishing
business, our Hong Kong subsidiary Educational Publishing
House Limited acquired 70% of the shares in Kinder Education
Press Limited for its strength in the kindergarten and
English textbooks market. |
| 2002 |
In July, Popular YuChen Limited was
formed in Taiwan in line with POPULAR's central clearing
house concept managing over 200 bookshops under its umbrella,
and enhanced the Group's purchasing and distribution power.
|
| 2002 |
In September, POPULAR made strategic
move into the e-learning market of Mainland China through
its subsidiary, PELH by procuring a 51% stake in Beijing
Tsinghua Timefound & Cisco System Technology Co. Ltd,
the leading e-learning platform provider in Mainland China,
a recognized market leader in the school e-learning platform
with well-established presence in major cities and provinces
across Mainland China. |
| 2002 |
PELH incorporated wholly-owned subsidiaries
in Hong Kong and Beijing, and registered a branch office
in Taiwan. |
| 2002 |
In October, EduPlanner Pte Ltd was
incorporated to provide consultancy service in the area
of IT Master Planning for Education. |
| 2003 |
Incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary,
Popular Digital Products (Shenzhen) Ltd in January, leaving
the first footprint in Mainland China's publishing market.
|
| 2003 |
In January, POPULAR ventured into Taiwan
publishing market by incorporating Popular Kids Co Ltd
in Taiwan whose principal activities are in educational
book publishing and distribution. |
| 2003 |
In June, POPULAR made another strategic
move into the kindergarten market of Mainland China. Its
subsidiary, PELH procured a 50% stake in Eduland Pte Ltd
through a joint venture with Crestar Holdings Pte Ltd. |
| 2004 |
In March, POPULAR has entered into
a joint venture agreement with China National Publishing
Industry Trading Corporation ("CNPITC") for
the purpose of setting up a company in Hong Kong known
as Popular Modern Books Company Limited ("Popular
Modern Books"). It will be principally engaged in
the distribution of Chinese publications to overseas market.
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