Marketing tools

Before professional financial printing companies came to the Chinese mainland, annual reports and prospectuses for new issues were usually handled by general advertising agencies. Back then, companies regarded financial reports as marketing tools.

But now, annual reports are expected to fulfill roles related to corporate governance and transparency as well.

What distinguishes financial printers from ad agencies? Tough requirements for confidentiality and intensive communication with clients, among other factors.

According to Mo, all of Toppan Vite's employees must sign a disclosure agreements to ensure clients' business secrets are kept confidential.

After working in the business for 27 years, the company has developed daily routines for employees, which are intended to deliver printing with the highest quality, accuracy, reliability and value.

More competitors

In 2012, Toppan Vite held a 24 percent market share of IPO prospectuses in Hong Kong and more than 57 percent in Singapore. Revenue for the year was about HK$300 million ($38.7 million).

"The professional financial printing market in China is still in its infancy," said Mo, who set up the Beijing branch six years ago.

"We would like to see more competitors from the Chinese mainland. We will see more, for sure."

Revenues on the mainland have risen 20 percent in each of the past three years, reaching 30 million yuan ($4.9 million) in 2012. The company has about 100 corporate clients in China, 20 percent of which are foreign companies.

"The robust momentum will be maintained for years to come, along with the stable growth and transformation of the Chinese economy," said Beck Chu, an account manager of Amicorp, an outsourcing and financial services firm that is also Toppan Vite's partner in Beijing.

"We have seen too many public relations firms, advertising agencies and similar communications companies, which boast of their ability to serve clients' needs. But the companies would like to see a professional financial printer that only publishes financial reports", said Shine Neo, business promotion manager of the Beijing Rongzhi Corporate Social Responsibility Institute.

Professionalism is the heart of competitiveness in this printing market segment, he added.

Ian Yap, creative director of Toppan Vite in Singapore, has designed and produced corporate annual reports for 20 years, starting when the work required "pens, paper, glue, rulers and cutters".

Yap said: "We read a company's financial reports from the past five to 10 years. Then we show how to make it different and new this year", Yap noted.

Successful financial reports and CSR statements should convey a good understanding of a company, which can be achieved by thorough research into a client and intensive communication.

Two to six designers work with photographers, graphics editors, writers and the communications department, which acts as the liaison with client companies.

Working with masses of material from a client's law and accounting firms, and its corporate public relations department, Toppan Vite takes one to three months to produce an annual report, according to Yap.