Monday, April 09, 2012

Update: Global Sources elaborates on NASDAQ issue

Global Sources issued a statement this afternoon explaining the reason for the halt in trading of its NASDAQ-listed shares last week. As we suspected, the suspension was as a result of a very minor issue. Global Sources' Executive Chairman Merle Hinrichs was quoted in the statement:

"NASDAQ's decision to halt trading of GSOL shares on April 3 came without warning and in management's view was totally unjustified.NASDAQ's request for additional information above and beyond normal financial accounting requirements has been fully and satisfactorily provided to NASDAQ. Trading in GSOL shares resumed on April 4.

"As we understand it, recently NASDAQ has begun the practice of requiring companies with Chinese operations to provide physical evidence of cash balances at banks via third party accountants. While GSOL has been listed on NASDAQ since 2000 without reproach, we too received NASDAQ's request in November 2011 to engage an independent CPA firm to conduct a physical visit to our financial institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China. We complied and delivered the reports on a timely basis. However, as one report was dated December 31, 2011 and another dated March 31, 2012, without notice NASDAQ determined it required additional information and halted our share trading on April 3. We immediately clarified the matter with NASDAQ and trading was resumed on April 4, reflecting the time zone difference. We will continue to maintain open communications with NASDAQ and any additional requests will be met promptly."

It is hard to imagine why NASDAQ needed to suspend trade of Global Sources' shares for such a minor point of clarification.

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