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OriginWater gets ready for listing

By Hou Qingyang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-25 08:29

The company expects to tap into the lucrative water treatment market after the GEB listing. [China Daily]

Visitors to Beijing's Olympic Park cannot fail to be impressed by the sizeable lake that adds essential fengshui to the much-praised development.

Reeds flourish in the fringes, lotuses are currently in bloom, colorful fish dart about and even wild swans pay occasional visits, to the delight of visitors.

The lake is fed by recycled water collected from Beixiaohe waste water treatment factory in northeastern Beijing by a company called OriginWater Technology Co Ltd.

It has now become their showpiece in a bid to become a bigger player in the fast growing water treatment market. To do so it needs more money and to get that it wants to list on China's NASDAQ-style growth enterprise board (GEB).

The startup and growth of OriginWater are both related to the Olympics.

Wen Jianping, founder and CEO of OriginWater, as a volunteer at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, saw how the city treated and circulated water using a membrane bioreactor (MBR), a filtration device used for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. This inspired him to return to China and start up OriginWater in 2001 with 2 million yuan registered capital.

In 2002, by signing the water treatment contract with the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), the art icon for the Beijing Olympics, Wen put OriginWater on the business map.

"We didn't earn a penny on the 50,000 tons a day water treatment project, but it showed what we could do and gave us a good reputation," said He Yuanping, vice-president, OriginWater.

Related readings:  Water pollution treatment lagging due to financial gap  Jilin plans sewage treatment plants along Songhua River  GEB float rates see mark-up  Regulator vetting suitors as GEB ball finally starts rolling

After the NCPA project, OriginWater was chosen as the water treatment provider for the Beijing Olympics and has now won dozens of water treatment projects in the capital, including the 150,000 tons a day water treatment project in Qinghe this year.

"OriginWater is small now but it is a fast-growing company in the water treatment market," said Zhang Kai, an analyst at China Minzu Securities.

As the government formulates more stringent environment protection policies and increases investment in water services, the domestic water service market will grow by 15 percent annually, according to a report on China's municipal wastewater treatment market.

During the 11th five-year plan period (2006-10), investment in water treatment will amount to more than 300 billion yuan, according to estimates by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The market has huge potential. However, competition is fierce and MBR is not the only option for water treatment.

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