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ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation Of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Text Block]
1.
ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
 
Origin Agritech Limited (“Agritech”), incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, and its subsidiaries and variable interest entities are referred to in this report as "we", "us", "our", or "the Company".  We are principally engaged in hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution business.

On September 26, 2016, we entered into a Master Transaction Agreement with Beijing Shihui Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. ( “Beijing Shihui” or the “Buyer”, a related party being controlled by close family members of the Company’s Chairman), formerly known as Beijing Shihui Agricultural Ltd., under which the Buyer agreed to purchase the corn seed production and distribution assets, the office building in Beijing, China, and generally the business of commercial corn seed production and sales now operated by the Company. On July 31, 2017, we completed the sale of 100% equity ownership interest in Changchun Origin Seed Technology Development Limited (“Changchun Origin”), 98.58% equity ownership interest in Denong Zhengcheng Seed Limited (“Denong”), 100% equity ownership interest in Linze Origin Seed Limited and Linze Branch of Beijing Origin Seed Limited (“Linze Origin”). On August 31, 2017, we transferred the control of Zhengzhou Branch of Beijing Origin Seed Limited (“Zhengzhou Branch”) to Beijing Shihui pursuant to a Management Agreement. For additional information, see
n
ote 4 - Discontinued Operations.
 
As of
September 30, 2017, the Company’s subsidiaries and variable interest entities included in continuing operations consisted of the following:
 
  Date of Place of Percentage    
  Incorporation Incorporation of  Principal 
Name or Establishment or Establishment Ownership  Activity 
            
Subsidiaries:           
State Harvest Holdings Limited(“State Harvest”) October 6, 2004 British Virgin Islands  100% Investment Holding 
            
Beijing Origin State Harvest Biotechnology Limited (“BioTech”) December 1, 2004 People’s Republic of China (“PRC”)  100% Hybrid seed technology development 
            
Origin Agritech USA LLC (“Origin USA”) August 12, 2016 United States of America (“USA”)  100% Hybrid seed technology development 
            
Variable interest entity:           
Beijing Origin Seed Limited (note (i)) (“Beijing Origin”) December 26, 1997 PRC  -  Hybrid crop seed development, production and Distribution 
            
Subsidiaries held by Beijing Origin:           
Henan Origin Cotton Technology Development Limited (note (i)) (“Henan Cotton”) March 2, 2001 PRC  92.04% Hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution 
            
Xinjiang Originbo Seed Company Limited (note (i)) (“Xinjiang Origin”) July 13, 2011 PRC  51% Hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution 
 
Note (i):
Beijing Origin Seed Limited, Henan Origin Cotton Technology Development Limited, and Xinjiang Originbo Seed Company Limited are collectively referred to as “Beijing Origin”.

Reorganization of State Harvest prior to the share exchange transaction with Chardan China Acquisition Corp. (“Chardan”)

On December 1, 2004, State Harvest established BioTech, a wholly-owned foreign enterprise (“WOFE”) under the laws of the PRC with an operating period of
20
years.
 
Under PRC law, foreign entities are not currently permitted to own more than 49% of a seed production company. In order to address those restrictions, State Harvest conducts substantially all of its business through contractual agreements with its variable interest entity (“VIE”), Beijing Origin. These agreements are summarized in the following paragraphs.
 
Stock Consignment Agreements

As discussed above in “Foreign Ownership Restrictions,” under Chinese law, foreign ownership of businesses engaged in the breeding of new varieties, development, production, marketing, distribution and sale of hybrid food crop seeds is limited to
49
% pursuant to the Regulation on the Approval and Registration of Foreign Investment Enterprises in Agricultural Seed Industry and The Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue. State Harvest, as a non-Chinese corporation, may not directly own more than
49
% of any of the PRC Operating Companies. However, Chinese law does not forbid the owner of stock to consign rights associated with the stock, as long as the owner does not transfer title to the stock. To gain control over the PRC Operating Companies, State Harvest entered into a series of stock consignment agreements with shareholders of those companies.

State Harvest has been assigned
97.96
% voting rights by the shareholders of Beijing Origin through a consignment agreement which includes the following terms: (1) The shares of Beijing Origin cannot be transferred without the approval of State Harvest; (2) State Harvest has the right to appoint all directors and senior management personnel of Beijing Origin and (3) The shareholder rights including voting rights require the transfer of the shares of Beijing Origin to State Harvest or any party designated by State Harvest within three years upon the removal of the PRC legal restriction.
 
Technical Service Agreements
 
Beijing Origin entered into Technical Service Agreements with BioTech dated December 25, 2004. Under these agreements, BioTech shall provide, with its own technical research resource and team, technical services for the production and distribution of agricultural seeds during the period of the agreements. In return, Beijing Origin is required to pay BioTech service fee calculated according to the weight of corn, rice and cotton seeds sold by the Beijing Origin.
 
Through the contractual agreements described above, State Harvest is deemed the sole beneficiary of Beijing Origin resulting in Beijing Origin being deemed a subsidiary of State Harvest under the requirements of Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standard Codification (“ASC”) 810-10-05. The agreements described above provided for effective control of Beijing Origin to be transferred to State Harvest at December 25, 2004. Neither State Harvest nor BioTech had any operating activity prior to entering into the consignment agreements with Beijing Origin. In substance, State Harvest has substantially all the same shareholders of Beijing Origin. This transaction has been accounted for on a basis similar to reorganization between entities under common control. Accordingly, State Harvest’s consolidated financial statements are prepared by including the consolidated financial statements of Beijing Origin through December 24, 2004, and subsequently the Company’s consolidated financial statements include the financial statements of State Harvest, its majority owned subsidiary and Beijing Origin through the date of the Share Exchange Transaction.

Risks in relation to the VIE structure
 
Three of our PRC operating subsidiaries are controlled subsidiaries through stock consignment agreements rather than by direct ownership of shares, the terms of which may have to be enforced, which would require us to incur extra costs, create uncertainty as to ownership of the operating businesses involved and risk the possible loss of rights. There is the risk, however, that a consigning shareholder will not fulfill its obligations under the stock consignment agreement. In that event, we may need to resort to the PRC courts to have our rights under the applicable agreement enforced. Such enforcement will cause us to incur legal expenses. In addition, while a case is pending there will be uncertainty regarding our rights as to the three PRC operating subsidiaries involved. In addition, a PRC court may decide not to enforce the agreements in whole or in part. To the extent these agreements are neither observed nor enforced as intended, the PRC operating subsidiaries will not be controlled by us as intended, which will affect our enterprise value and restrict our ability to obtain the income and other rights of ownership associated with the consigned stock. It may also prevent the consolidation of our financial statements with the PRC operating subsidiaries, which would reduce the reported earnings of the consolidated companies. The uncertainty of ownership may also adversely affect the market value of our ordinary shares.
 
Whether or not a stock consignment agreement is terminated depends on the consensus of our Board and the consignees. Any such termination could result in a possible loss of certain rights or assets held by us without receiving fair value in return. The stock consignment agreements relating to our control of the stock of our PRC operating subsidiaries may be terminated after three years upon mutual agreement between us and the consignees. Holding this amount of stock will allow these officers to control or greatly influence the selection of directors and matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders, including voting to terminate the stock consignment agreements.

There are corporate protections in place designed to protect our interests, such as an independent Board of Directors, an audit committee comprised of independent directors that must approve insider transactions, a code of conduct requiring fair dealing with the Company, and the British Virgin Islands statutory provision that a disposition of more than 50% of the assets of a company must be approved by a majority of the shareholders. Moreover, if consigned stock is transferred to us as provided in the stock consignment agreements when the restrictions under PRC law are lifted, that stock will no longer be subject to the stock consignment agreements, and the termination of the stock consignment agreements would then have no effect on the ownership of that stock. However, if the stock consignment agreements are terminated, then we would lose our rights with respect to the consigned stock and the profits from the issuing corporation. Such a loss would impair the value of the Company and would reduce our ability to generate revenues.
 
The Company has aggregated the financial information of Beijing Origin and its subsidiaries in the table below. The aggregated carrying amount of assets and liabilities of Beijing Origin and its subsidiaries after elimination of intercompany transactions and balances consolidated in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets as of September 30, 2016 and 2017 are as follows:

Risks in relation to the VIE structure
 
  September 30, 
  2016 2017 2017 
  RMB RMB US$ 
ASSETS          
Current Assets          
Cash and cash equivalents  2,920  2,848  433 
Restricted cash  21,181  -  - 
Due from related party  -  33,300  5,017 
Advances to suppliers  4,107  5,293  798 
Inventories  579  19,911  3,000 
Other current assets  1,667  1,306  197 
Current assets of discontinued operations  446,449  22,027  3,315 
Total current assets  476,903  84,685  12,760 
Land use rights, net  14,399  13,851  2,087 
Plant and equipment, net  151,997  144,798  21,817 
Equity investments  18,721  18,721  2,821 
Acquired intangible assets, net  13,923  8,585  1,294 
Other assets  1,683  4,196  632 
Non-current assets of discontinued operations  193,769  37,742  5,687 
Total assets  871,395  312,578  47,098 
LIABILITIES          
Current liabilities          
Short-term borrowings  105,000  15,000  2,260 
Current portion of long-term borrowings  7,023  35,504  5,349 
Accounts payable  1,287  1,451  219 
Due to related parties  12,602  10,000  1,507 
Other payables and accrued expenses  39,221  30,454  4,589 
Current liabilities of discontinued operations  428,780  31,041  4,677 
Total current liabilities  593,913  123,450  18,601 
Long-term borrowings  20,000  56,769  8,554 
Other long-term liability  19,426  20,468  3,084 
Non-current liabilities of discontinued operations  8,080  -  - 
Total liabilities  641,419  200,687  30,239 
 
As of September 30, 2016 and 2017, consolidated assets of RMB247,231 and RMB 42,979, respectively, are collateral for the VIE’s obligations. These consolidated assets consisted of land use right of RMB17,867, and RMB 13,648, plant and equipment of RMB192,928 and RMB 29,331 and inventory of RMB 36,436 and nil as of September 30, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
 
The consolidated revenues of the Company generated from the VIE and its subsidiaries for the year ended September 30, 2015, 2016 and 2017 are 99.92%, 99.86% and 100.00%, of the total revenues respectively
 which are reported in discon
t
inued operations
. The VIE and its subsidiaries also account for 98.95%
 a
nd 96.43% of the total assets of the Company as at September 30, 2016 and 2017, respectively.