Business alliance to support multinational company needs for entering for both Japanese and Korean markets

BELLSYSTEM24, Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo Ward, Tokyo; Representative Director, President, CEO: Tsuge Ichiro; referred to below as "BELLSYSTEM24") and ITOCHU Corporation (Headquarters: Minato Ward, Tokyo; CEO: Okafuji Masahiro; referred to below as "ITOCHU") have reached a basic agreement with HANKOOK Corporation (CEO: Kim Hyun Kyum; Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea; referred to below as "HANKOOK"), a major call center company in South Korea, and J-SPARK NATURAL (Representative Director and Chairman: Cho Chang Hak, Headquarters: Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea; Referred to below as "J-SPARK"), a company which provides business management consulting and other business support services in South Korea and Japan. This is an agreement on a business partnership to work together on contact center services in both Japanese and Korean.

HANKOOK was founded in 1991 as a contact center system supplier and became a stock-listed on KOSDAQ in 2005 --becoming the leading company in the South Korean contact center industry. It has approximately 4,500 employees, 3,000 booths, and contracts with more than 120 client companies, which are mainly financial and government-affliated companies or organizations.

Currently, when a foreign company from the West or elsewhere starts a contact center service in order to expand into Asia, it is necessary to sign a contract with a different company in each country. However, this makes it difficult to launch early and also makes it difficult to provide consistent service quality among the differing sites after launch. Through this alliance, foreign companies can outsource their Japanese and Korean language support in one go, avoiding the issues that normally occur when entering Asian markets.

BELLSYSTEM24 and HANKOOK can provide an early launch and stable operations through cooperation involving the exchange of operational know-how and manuals that are used for current clients. Also, BELLSYSTEM24 and HANKOOK will work together on system integration, joint development efforts, and a wide range of other initiatives in addition to cooperation between the two contact center networks and mutual introductions to each other's client companies.

BELLSYSTEM24 also plans on building a business partnership in Vietnam between HANKOOK and BELLSYSTEM24's affiliate company, Bellsystem24-Hoa Sao Joint Stock Company. It is said that more than 100,000 Koreans live in Vietnam, with there being Korean language needs that such a business partnership could address. BELLSYSTEM24 and HANKOOK aim to expand their services to support additional languages, with alliances in other regions an area of consideration.

With this business agreement, ITOCHU will use its Japanese and overseas network to create synergies within its group companies, and introduce client companies. J-SPARK will mostly introduce client companies from its network in South Korea, also providing support to bridge the gap between different business practices in Japan and South Korea.

ITOCHU has been steadily strengthening its efforts toward non-resource sectors, especially in consumer-related fields, and plans to make BPO business with high affinity with IT one of its new core business areas.

ITOCHU and BELLSYSTEM24 will continue to vigorously and rapidly promote partnerships, especially in Asia, in order to accommodate contact center needs from multinational companies.

<About HANKOOK>

Corporate Name: HANKOOK Corporation Inc.

Established: July, 1991

Head Office: Seoul, South Korea

CEO: Mr. Kim, Hyun Kyum

Sites and Locations: 6 sites/Seoul and its suburb

Employees: 4,500 people

Booths: 3,000 booths

Business Description: Call center business, iInfrastructure service, System device supplier

<About J-SPARK>

Corporate Name: J-SPARK NATURAL

Head Office: Icheon, Gyonggi Province, South Korea

Representative: Mr. Cho Chang Hak

Business Description: Business management advising and consultation business,

Business support services in South Korea and Japan

All names of corporations and products in this document are the trademark or registered trademark of their respective owner.
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[Mass Media Inquiries]
Public and Investor Relations, BELLSYSTEM24, Inc.
Email: pr@bell24.co.jp / Telephone: 03-6893-9827

Public and Investor Relations Division, ITOCHU Corporation

Telephone: 03-3497-7293