Investigations 2 Mar 2012 22:52
From rogue article reported in 'Seeking Alpha' Nov 8 2011 : We telephoned Mr Huang, Sales Manager at Litian Hepu, and he said to us that “Royal Star” is a relatively new brand and therefore it is not really famous in the market yet. He refused to disclose the names of the supermarkets through which they sell their products and would only say their products are sold more to the wholesale market and processing factories for juice products.
Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen were mentioned in the company annual report as its major markets. We worked to verify brand recognition through phone interviews with relevant employees from Wal-mart (WMT), Carrefour, Trust market in Shanghai and none of the interviewees had heard of the “Royal Star 新雅奇” brand.
From Nicosia Worldwide Business Review Mar 2 2012 :
In an article published by Next on Wednesday, an unnamed journalist who travelled to one of the company’s three plantations in Jiangxi province reportedly found fewer oranges on the plantation than Asian Citrus had stated, and was unable to find the company’s Royal Star branded oranges, sold in more than 20 supermarkets.
In response Asian Citrus, whose shares are traded on Aim and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said its winter oranges had already been harvested, and that the reporter visited Carrefour and Walmart, two supermarkets which are not customers.
So, the November article checked out Wal-Mart and Carrefour and the company in their Feb 22nd response to Next article says the reporter visited Wal-Mart and Carrefour. Therefore same investigation brought on both Nov 8 and Next Feb 22 articles.
The Nicosia article on Mar 2 also says:
Eric Sung, Asian Citrus’s finance director, said the group’s board was considering taking legal action against Next Magazine, a Chinese-language publication in Hong Kong, for broader accusations the magazine made surrounding its business.
“Because the allegations have no substance, we reserve the right to any further legal action,” Mr Sung said.
http://nicosiamoneynews.com/2012/02/22/asian-citrus-defends-production-figures/
rogue article http://seekingalpha.com/article/306149-asian-citrus-sour-oranges
Unable to get transcript or link to Feb 22 HK Next article from google or from Seymour Pierce. Spoke to Tom Sheldon at SP today(20 minutes) and he's forwarding a request for clarification from Asian Citrus as to whether the 2 articles stemmed from the same investigation. Although he can see both articles he refuses to say whether they cite the same data or not. Anyway, I conclude,after much deliberation,they do and, moreover, the company has disproved most of the claims. It is the People's Republic of China, the oranges are only sold there, 'Being single largest orange producer in China, the Group only accounted for approximately 3.3% of the market share. Thus, it indicates that the industry is very fra
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