Xinhua Finance's Subsidiary Mergent to Purchase Praedea Solutions Inc.

Xinhua Finance's Subsidiary Mergent to Purchase Praedea Solutions Inc.

July 14, 2006

    SHANGHAI, China, July 14 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Xinhua
Finance (TSE Mothers: 9399; OTC: XHFNY), China's
unchallenged leader in financial information and media,
today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Mergent,
Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase 100% of the
shares of Praedea Solutions Inc. ("Praedea"). 
Founded in 2002, Praedea develops enterprise software for
automated data extraction.  Praedea licenses its software
product to major financial market data vendors and other
financial market participants to expedite the process of
data collection, making high quality data available in near
real time. 

    The acquisition advances Xinhua Finance's data
collection strategy enabling it and its subsidiary Mergent
to continue to meet global needs for near-real-time
transparent and added-value financial information. 
Immediately following the acquisition, Praedea will change
its name to Mergent Data Technology, Inc. 

    Jonathan Worrall CEO of Mergent Inc. stated, "This
acquisition, which was made after extensive research and
trials, considerably enhances our ability to achieve the
mission of being the premier provider of global financial
data.   The marriage of the latest proven technology
combined with the industries leading data collection
process and the most comprehensive data history available
make this a truly unique offering." 

    He further added, "This allows Mergent to compete
not only as a traditional data provider but also as a
serious competitor in the market for the outsourcing of
global financial data collection.  Outsourcing through
inexpensive labor has proven problematic as cost and
retention issues continue.  The application of technology
to base data collection combined with Mergent's proven
historical databases allows clients to outsource the
collection of commodity like data and focus their effort on
value added business processes." 

    Mergent, Inc., the leading provider of business and
financial data on global publicly listed companies, jointed
the Xinhua Finance family in July 2004, adding depth to
Xinhua Finance's ratings services with its range of
research tools and data.

    Notes to Editors

    About Praedea Solutions, Inc. 

    Praedea Solutions, Inc. ("Praedea(SM)")
develops and licenses universal enterprise software
solutions providing real-time data extraction from
financial/SEC filings and other documents.  Utilizing
proprietary text-mining automation, the Praedea Data
Extraction Platform(TM) (the "Praedea DEP(TM)")
automatically extracts predetermined numeric figures and
text from semi-structured electronic documents, while
retaining "Source Links(TM)" (hyperlinks to
precise locations in underlying source documents) for
absolute data transparency. The Praedea DEP's user-friendly
interface and open standards development facilitate rapid
and uncomplicated implementation. 

    Based in New York, Praedea was established in 2002. 
The Company has approximately 30 employees located in New
York and Kiev.  Its executive team has over 90 years of
combined experience in the text-mining, financial services
and information industries and its outside directors and
advisors are highly-recognized and experienced industry
players. 

    About Xinhua Finance Limited 

    Xinhua Finance Limited is China's unchallenged leader
in financial information and media, and is listed on the
Mothers board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (symbol: 9399)
(OTC ADRs: XHFNY).  Bridging China's financial markets and
the world, Xinhua Finance serves financial institutions,
corporations and re-distributors through four focused and
complementary service lines: Indices, Ratings, Financial
News and Investor Relations.  Founded in November 1999, the
Company is headquartered in Shanghai with 20 news bureaus
and offices in 19 locations across Asia, Australia, North
America and Europe.  

    For more information, please visit
http://www.xinhuafinance.com . 
 
    This is a press release to the public and should not be
relied as information to make an investment decision by any
investor.  Investors should read the Company's Annual
Securities Report for the year ended 2005 and consider the
risk factors together with other information contained
therein when making an investment decision. This press
release contains some forward-looking statements that
involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  A number of
factors could cause actual results, performance,
achievements of the Company or industries in which it
operates to differ materially from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements.

    For more information, please contact: 

    Xinhua Finance
    Hong Kong/Shanghai
     Ms. Joy Tsang
     Tel:   [phone] or
[phone]    
     Email: [e-mail]

    Japan 
     Mr. Sun Jiong
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

    Taylor Rafferty (Media/IR Contact)
    Japan 
     Mr. James Hawrylak
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

    United States
     Mr. Ishviene Arora
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

    Europe
     Mr. John Dudzinsky
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail]

SOURCE  Xinhua Finance