TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 6, 2014) - GreenStar Agricultural Corporation (TSX VENTURE:GRE) (the "Company" or "GreenStar"), is pleased to announce that the Company has paid its quarterly dividend of $0.015/share in respect of the first quarter of 2014. This dividend payment is the fifth consecutive quarterly dividend payment made by the GreenStar and represents an increase of 50% over the previous dividend payments.
GreenStar also wishes to provide additional background with respect to the news release issued on April 28, 2014 and the Company's application for the issuance of a management and insider cease trade order ("MCTO"). GreenStar voluntarily made an application to the securities commissions of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta for a MCTO once management became reasonably certain that the Company's audited annual financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and related Management's Discussion & Analysis, and CEO and CFO certification of filings (collectively, the "Annual Filings") would be delayed.
Mr. Guan Lianyun, GreenStar's CEO commented, "GreenStar management continues to work with the Company's auditors and is placing their highest priority on completing the Annual Filings and will provide further updates as soon as information is available. We are confident we will be successful in completing the audit in short order and are looking forward to continuing our efforts to absorb our Bei Chen acquisition and continue our efforts to grow."
In respect of the MCTO, the Ontario Securities Commission ("OSC"). the principal regulator of the Company, issued a Temporary MCTO yesterday, which imposes restrictions on all trading in and all acquisitions of securities of the Company, whether direct or indirect, by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer of the Company for a period of 15 days. The Temporary MCTO will not affect the ability of persons who are not insiders of GreenStar to trade its securities. The OSC has given notice of a hearing to be held on within 15 days of the Temporary MCTO for the purposes of making the Temporary MCTO permanent (which is expected to continue to only restrict management and insiders in the trading of securities) if the Company has not remedied the default in filing the Annual Filings. GreenStar intends to satisfy the provisions of the Alternative Information Guidelines as set out in National Policy 12 - 203 for as long as GreenStar remains in default, including the issuance of further by-weekly default status reports, each of which will be issued in the form of a press release. A general cease trade order may be issued if GreenStar fails to file such default status reports on a timely basis. The Company is working diligently to ensure that its Annual Filings are brought up to date well before a general cease trade order would be applicable.
About GreenStar
GreenStar operates two main divisions, agricultural and food processing. The agricultural division is involved in the cultivation and harvesting of agricultural products such as fresh fruit and vegetables, for sale either directly as fresh fruit and vegetables or canned, and sold overseas and domestically. The food processing division is primarily involved in the processing of canned food, which includes canned tomato paste, canned boiled bamboo shoots, canned oranges, canned peaches and various other types of fruits and vegetables.
GreenStar has been operating for over 19 years. Through the application of science and technology in production, quality control and assurance, and business operations and management, GreenStar has focused on maintaining product and reputational excellence with a high standard of food quality. Key assets include a well established management team, modern production facilities, and a close partnership with local farmers.
GreenStar Agricultural Corp. is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "GRE".
For further information on GreenStar please visit our web site at www.greenstaragricultural.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information:
Certain statements in this press release may constitute ''forward looking'' statements which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. When used in this press release, such statements may use such words as ''may'', ''will'', ''expect'', ''believe'', ''plan'' and other similar terminology. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this press release. Forward looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to but is not limited to, management's expectation on whether a permanent MCTO will be granted and the expected terms and effects of the permanent MCTO if granted, management's intention to provide further updates as soon as information is available, management's intention to comply with the Alternative Information Guidelines, management's expectation that it will be successful in completing the audit in short order, management's plan to continue the efforts to absorb the Bei Chen acquisition and continue its efforts to grow; and management's expectation that the Annual Filings will be brought up to date well before a general cease trade order would be applicable.. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained in this press release. Some of the risks and other factors which could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information contained in this press release include, but are not limited to: risk of regulatory authorities not granting the MCTO, risk of the terms of the MCTO being different from anticipated, international, national and local business and economic conditions; political or economic instability in the Company's markets; competition; legislation and governmental regulation; and accounting policies and practices. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Please see the Company's annual MD&A dated April 25, 2013, available on www.sedar.com, for a more detailed description of the risk factors. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward looking information, whether a result of new information, future results or otherwise, except as required by law.