SkyPeople Announces Delay In Filing 2015 Annual Report; Trading Halted

(RTTNews) - SkyPeople Fruit Juice, Inc. (SPU), a producer of fruit juice concentrates, fruit juice beverages and other fruit-related products, announced that the filing of its annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal year 2015 will be delayed.

Separately, the Nasdaq Stock Market (NDAQ) announced that trading was halted today in SkyPeople Fruit Juice at 09:23:49 Eastern Time for "additional information requested" from the company at a last price of $2.40. Trading will remain halted until SkyPeople Fruit Juice, Inc. has fully satisfied Nasdaq's request for additional information.

As a primary cause of the delay, on April 12, 2016, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of SkyPeople dismissed Armanino LLP as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, effectively immediately. The Company notes that Armanino's audit reports on the Company's consolidated financial statements as of and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion and were not qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles, SkyPeople Fruit Juice said.

In addition, during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, and in the subsequent interim period through April 11, 2016, there were (i) no disagreements between the Company and Armanino on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreements, if not resolved to the satisfaction of Armanino, would have caused Armanino to make reference to the subject matter of the disagreement in their reports on the financial statements for such years, and (ii) no "reportable events"

On April 12, 2016, the Audit Committee also approved the engagement of Wei, Wei & Co., LLP as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm, effectively immediately. The Audit Committee also approved Wei & Wei to act as the Company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal years ending December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2016.

Further, on March 11, 2016, subsidiaries of the Company entered into a share transfer agreement and capital contribution agreements with Shenzhen TianShunDa Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. in order to obtain the capital contribution to meet the registered capital requirements by the Chinese government. The management and accounting staffs of the Company and its subsidiaries have devoted substantial time and resources during the first two months of 2016 in connection with the preparation, negotiation, due diligence for the transaction mentioned above in order to complete the transaction. Because of this, the Company was only able to devote its full resources and manpower to the preparation of Form 10-K after the transaction was completed, and it was not able meet the extended filing date of April 14, 2016.

The Company will work diligently with its newly retained certified accounting firm, Wei & Wei, to complete Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and it expects that it will file its annual report on Form 10-K by June 30, 2016.