RIBT announced that it had received shareholder approval to increase its authorized shares of common stock to 25,000,000 effective May 30, 2014. RIBT will immediately eliminate debt obligations with a face value of $9.5mn through conversion into RIBT common stock
New York, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2014 / SeeThruEquity, a leading independent equity research and corporate access firm focused on smallcap and microcap public companies, today announced that it has issued an earnings update on RiceBran Technologies (NASDAQ: RIBT and RIBTW) for Q1 2014.
"RIBT reported strong growth from its USA segments, with revenues of $5mn representing a 72% increase over $2.9mn in 1Q13. The strong growth in USA segment revenues was primarily due to the integration of the H&N acquisition.," remarked Ajay Tandon, CEO of SeeThruEquity. "We are further encouraged by RIBT eliminating debt obligations with a face value of $9.5mn through conversion into RIBT common stock due to recent shareholder approval to increase authorized shares. We reiterate our price target of $11.07 per share."
Investment highlights for the quarter are as follows:
- USA segment benefitting from H&N acquisition. RIBT reported consolidated revenues of $7.7mn in 1Q14, an 11.8% decrease from $8.7mn in 1Q13. The decrease is the result of a planned idling of the company's Irgovel facility in Brazil for ten weeks during 1Q14 to allow installation of equipment necessary to increase capacity at the rice bran bio-refinery by at least 50% to 9,000 metric tons per month. The Irgovel plant has been restarted and revenues are expected to ramp significantly over the balance of 2014. RIBT reported strong growth from its USA segments, with revenues of $5mn representing a 72% increase over $2.9mn in 1Q13. The strong growth in USA segment revenues was primarily due to the integration of the Healthy Natural, Inc. (H&N) acquisition. RIBT reported gross margins of 18.4% in 1Q14, compared with 11.1% in 1Q13 and 11.3% in 4Q13. This is the result of improving product mix, in large part due to the H&N acquisition. We are expecting 1Q14 to be the lowest gross margin quarter of 2014 for RIBT. RIBT has expansion initiatives underway at Irgovel, H&N, and its Dillon, Montana facility, which will enable the company to grow its business meaningfully in the upcoming years.
- Debt conversion. On June 4, 2014, RIBT announced that it had received shareholder approval to increase its authorized shares of common stock to 25,000,000 effective May 30, 2014. RIBT will immediately eliminate debt obligations with a face value of $9.5mn through conversion into RIBT common stock. The approval allows RIBT to implement the planned conversion of notes with a face value totaling $6.2mn into RIBT common stock at $5.25 per share and the conversion of $3.3mn in face value debt obligations related to the January 2014 acquisition of H&N, into RIBT common stock at $6.00 per share.
The note is available here: RiceBran Technologies Q1 2014 Note. SeeThruEquity is an approved equity research contributor on Thomson First Call, Capital IQ, FactSet, and Zack’s. The report will also be available on these platforms.
Please review important disclosures on our website at www.seethruequity.com.
About RiceBran Technologies
RiceBran Technologies is a human food ingredient and animal nutrition company focused on the procurement, bio-refining and marketing of numerous products derived from rice bran. Rice Bran Technologies has proprietary and patented intellectual property that allows us to convert rice bran, one of the world's most underutilized food sources, into a number of highly nutritious human food ingredient and animal nutrition products. Our target markets are human food ingredients and animal nutrition manufacturers and retailers, as well as natural food, functional food and nutraceutical supplement manufacturers and retailers, both domestically and internationally.
More information can be found in our filings with the SEC and by visiting our website at www.ricebrantech.com.
About SeeThruEquity
SeeThruEquity is an equity research and corporate access firm focused on companies with less than $1 billion in market capitalization. The research is not paid for and is unbiased. We do not conduct any investment banking or commission based business. We are approved to contribute our research to Thomson One Analytics (First Call), Capital IQ, FactSet, Zacks and distribute our research to our database of opt-in investors. We also contribute our estimates to Thomson Estimates, the leading estimates platform on Wall Street.
For more information visit www.seethruequity.com.
Contact:
Ajay Tandon
SeeThruEquity
(646) 495-0939
SOURCE: SeeThruEquity