v3.22.2.2
ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
12 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2021
ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES  
ORGANIZATION AND PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES

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.

As of September 30, 2021, 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

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

Variable interest entity:

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

Beijing Origin Seed Limited (note (i)) (“Beijing Origin”)

December 26, 1997

 

PRC

 

Note (i)

 

Hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

Subsidiaries held by Beijing Origin:

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

Xinjiang Originbo Seed Company Limited (note (i)) (“Xinjiang Origin”)

July 13, 2011

 

PRC

 

51

%  

Hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution

Subsidiaries held by State Harvest:

Shandong Aoruixinong Agricultural Technology Limited (Shandong Aoruixinong)

September 27, 2019

PRC

51

%  

Agricultural seed products distribution through e-commune network

Hubei Aoyu Zhongye Limited (Hubei Aoyu)

October 22, 2018

 

PRC

 

51

%  

Agricultural seed products distribution through e-commerce network

Anhui Aoyu Zhongye Limited (Anhui Aoyu)

July 25, 2018

PRC

50

%  

Agricultural seed products distribution through e-commerce network

Xuzhou Aoyu Zhongye imited (Xuzhou Aoyu)

September 25, 2018

PRC

51

%  

Agricultural seed products distribution through e-commerce network

Henan Aoyu Zhongye Limited (note (i)) (“Henan Aoyu”)

July 16, 2018

PRC

51

%  

Agricultural seed products distribution through e-commerce network

Note (i): Beijing Origin Seed Limited, Xinjiang Originbo Seed Company Limited, and Zhengzhou Branch of Beijing Origin Seed 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

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 a 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

Two 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, 2020 and 2021 are as follows:

Risks in relation to the VIE structure (Beijing Origin Consolidated Balance Sheet)

September 30, 

2020

2021

2021

    

RMB

    

RMB

    

US$

ASSETS

Current Assets

Cash and cash equivalents

206

305

47

Restricted cash

 

 

 

Due from related party

 

 

 

Accounts receivable

1,099

11

2

Advances to suppliers

 

377

 

260

 

40

Inventories

 

10,118

 

1,052

 

162

Other current assets

 

1,279

 

730

 

113

Total current assets

 

13,079

 

2,358

 

364

Land use rights, net

 

9,785

 

1,854

 

286

Plant and equipment, net

 

115,338

 

48,599

 

7,494

Equity investments

 

 

 

Acquired intangible assets, net

 

87

 

 

Other assets

 

5,749

 

83

 

13

Total assets

 

144,038

 

52,894

 

8,157

LIABILITIES

 

 

  

 

  

Current liabilities

 

  

 

  

 

  

Current portion of long-term borrowings

 

 

137,660

 

21,226

Accounts payable

 

9,533

 

9,107

 

1,404

Due to growers

6,673

6,673

1,029

Due to related parties

 

20,217

 

30,665

 

4,728

Advances from customers

52,535

22,772

3,511

Other payables and accrued expenses

 

61,019

 

51,520

 

7,944

Total current liabilities

 

149,977

 

258,397

 

39,842

Long-term borrowings

 

137,660

 

 

Other long-term liability

 

23,074

 

15,717

 

2,423

Total liabilities

 

310,711

 

274,114

 

42,265

As of September 30, 2020 and 2021, consolidated assets of RMB144,038 and RMB52,894, respectively, are collateral for the VIE’s obligations and may not be used to settle the liabilities of the Parent Company.