(26 March 2015, Hong Kong) Sinofert Holdings Limited ("Sinofert" or the "Company") (stock code: 00297) today announced the annual results of the Company and its subsidiaries (the "Group") for the 12 months ended December 31, 2014 (the “Period”).

In 2014, the Chinese economy was exposed to some downward pressure. The Chinese fertilizer industry remained sluggish, the overall price of fertilizers continued to decline, and the oversupply situation intensified. In order to accelerate the elimination of less competitive fertilizer capacity, the Chinese government gradually reduced the preferential policies to fertilizer industry and constantly strengthened the requirements from safety and environmental protection, which brought more pressure to the operation of fertilizer enterprises.

During the reporting period, since the Group strictly controlled the market risk and took several measures to reduce costs and improve efficiency, the operation and management capability of the Group were improved. The Group recorded revenue of RMB 28.3 billion, a decrease of 18.46% year-on-year. Basic earnings per share were RMB 0.0326. Return on equity was 1.72%. The Group turned losses to profits with profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 229 million.

Operation quality indicators of the Group were all in good condition with a sound financial situation.

During the reporting period, the Group’s gross profit increased 10.9% or RMB 139 million to RMB 1.418 billion.

Under the complex conditions of the fertilizer market, the Group steadily carried out the transformation from trading to marketing and reinforced the basic business management, which led to relatively good operating performance in 2014.

The Group used different operation strategies for different products. Potash operations：Through deepening the operational transformation and steadily promoting the channel marketing of potash for agricultural application, the gross profit increased 59% year-on-year. Phosphate Operations: Through strengthening the dynamic management of supplier, optimizing the logistics layout and enhancing the brand management, the gross profit increased 13% year-on-year. Compound Fertilizer Operations: Through constantly optimizing the product structure, intensifying the integrated operation of production-supply-marketing, and enhancing the building terminal channel, the gross profit stayed basically the same as in 2013 while the product prices declined. Nitrogen Operations：Against the market downturn, the Group reduced the operational risk with several measures including the cut down of the product sales, which led to 31% decrease of the gross profit year-on-year.

Due to cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the Group’s expenses were well controlled. During the reporting period, total expenses including sales and marketing costs, general administration expenditure, and financing costs amounted for RMB 1.584 billion, a decrease of 8.39% year-on-year, among which financing costs were RMB 143 million, a decrease of 40.66% year-on-year. The decrease in financing costs was due to （1）The reduction of the average scale of the Group’s borrowings in 2014, and (2) the Group brought into full play the advantage of domestic and overseas capital platform and constantly reduced the finance costs.

The Group maintained stable and sufficient cash flow.  As of December 31, 2014, cash and cash equivalents of the Group amounted to RMB 463 million.

The distribution network was optimized to improve its profitability and the professional capability of the distribution teams was improved

During the reporting period, the Group continued to optimize the existing distribution network to improved its profitability and enhancing the service capability to customers through consolidating customer base and optimizing product structure. In 2014, the Group maintains over 2100 distribution stores.

The Group continued to accelerate the marketing service transformation in Branches of the Group. Based compound fertilizer and potash business, the Group was meant to build a professional marketing team, with a good understanding of marketing and services through strengthening the team building in the Branches of the Group and improving sales people’s marketing and promotion capabilities.

The upstream and downstream industry resources were integrated to achieve synergies

During the reporting period, the Group announced that Sinochem Fertilizer proposed to acquire 15.01% of total shares of Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co., Ltd (Qinghai Salt Lake) from its parent company Sinochem Corporation. The acquisition is expected to complete by the end of this year. Upon completion of the Acquisition, Sinochem Fertilizer will hold 23.95% of the total shares of Qinghai Salt Lake, and will become the second largest shareholder of Qinghai Salt Lake. The synergies created by the acquisition will further enhance the Group's competitive advantage in the whole industrial chain of potash and consolidate the Group’s leading position in Chinese potash market.

The Group also actively focused on investment and merger and acquisition opportunities for fertilizer related resources and new fertilizers. Currently, a number of projects are carried out in an orderly way.

Mr. LIU Deshu, the Chairman of the Board of Sinofert, commented: “in 2014, the global economy was sluggish. The growth rate of Chinese economy was slowing down. The oversupply situation in the domestic fertilizer industry was further intensified. Against this background, the Group actively took various measures and made great efforts to mitigate the impact of unfavorable factors which helped the Group to make a profit from losses. The operation quality indicators of the Group were all in good condition with a sound financial situation and the Group’s operation & management capability as well as risk control ability have all been improved, which will lay a solid foundation for the Group’s future growth.”

Looking ahead, Mr. Liu continued: “In 2015, it will be difficult to make any distinct improvement on the oversupply situation in the fertilizer industry, the challenge posed by newcomers of the industry to the traditional fertilizer operation model will emerge rapidly and the market-orientation of fertilizer industry policies will speed up. Meanwhile, the No.1 Document issued by the State Council of China highlighted that more efforts should be made to accelerate the progress of agricultural modernization, which will bring historic opportunities to the Group in respect of transformation and upgrading. Confronted with a complex market environment, the Group will stick to the principle of “active, safe, sustained and sound” development, centre on transformation and upgrading, take lean management and reform & innovation as the foundation, take root among modern agriculture, optimize the business structure and achieve steady and sustainable development in the Group’s performance. As a leading Chinese fertilizer enterprise, the Group will focus on the promotion of strategic transformation, strive to become a global leading provider of agricultural inputs and agrochemical services, create value for shareholders of the Group, and make bigger contribution to national food security and agricultural modernization.”