[UPDATE – Here’s a pic of Irving. – Editor]
If a Bloomberg report is accurate, Origin Agritech (SEED)’s Interim CFO Irving Kau just issued a whopping lie in a pathetic and transparent attempt to divert attention away from the warning issued yesterday by the SEC concerning reverse mergers, see here, of which Origin is one of many. According to Bloomberg:
12:54 *ORIGIN WASN’T FORMED BY REVERSE TAKEOVER, CFO SAYS :SEED US
12:54 *ORIGIN FORMED BY SPECIAL PURPOSE ACQUISITION COMPANY, NOT RTO
12:54 *ORIGIN SAYS SHARES ARE A GOOD VALUE AFTER DROP :SEED US
12:54 *ORIGIN AGRITECH CFO KAU SPEAKS IN PHONE INTERVIEW FROM BEIJING
12:53 *ORIGIN AGRITECH CONSIDERING SHARE BUYBACKS, CFO SAYS :SEED US
If Irving Kau thinks that Origin Agritech (SEED) was not once a little shell called Chardan China Acquisition Corp (CAQC) he is delusional. All it takes is a simple search to find a press release from from November 2005 which states:
Chardan China Acquisition Corp. Completes Merger with State Harvest Holdings Limited and Changes Name to Origin Agritech Limited
BEIJING & SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 8, 2005 Chardan China Acquisition Corp. (OTCBB: CAQC, CAQCU, CAQCW) (“Chardan”) and privately-held State Harvest Holdings Limited announced that the closing of the merger of the companies occurred today, and that the new company, Origin Agritech Limited (“Origin”), will have its shares begin trading tomorrow on the NASDAQ National Market. As a result of the merger, each share of common stock of Chardan automatically converts into one share of common stock of Origin, and each outstanding warrant of Chardan automatically converts into a warrant of Origin having the identical terms, but exercisable into common stock of Origin. The Company’s common stock, warrants and units will trade under the symbols SEED, SEEDW, and SEEDU, respectively. As a result of the merger, in which the shareholders of State Harvest Holdings received at closing, among other consideration, 10,200,000 unregistered shares of Origin, Origin will have approximately 15,100,000 shares and 8,050,000 warrants outstanding.
Chardan, whose asset management arm is the current home of Steven Oliveira, of Repros Therapeutics (RPRX) private placement fame, is a shop run by Kerry Propper that specialised in creating publicly traded shells, that they dubbed SPACs, and then merging them with Chinese companies too pathetic to even do an IPO with sleazy shops like Rodman or Roth. Are Chardan and it’s SPACs really much different from Westpark Capital and it’s WRASPs?
Chardan has also done work for such notables as super director Lawrence G. Schafran‘s SulphCo (SUF) . Chardan’s client list includes other winners, like A-Power (APWR) once a shell called Chardan South China Acquisition Corp. (CSCA), China Cablecom (CABL) once a shell called Jaguar Acquisition Corp. (JGAC), and Hollysys Automation (HOLI) which began life as Chardan North China Acquisition Corp. (CNCA). Another Chardan shell, Chardan 2008 China Acquisition Corp., with the ironically scatalogical ticker CACA, is now DJSP, and trading for a massive 7 cents per share.
Irving Kau, save what little credibility that remains, and stop spreading the lie that Chardan deals are not reverse mergers.