As a public company, we will incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, together with rules implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission and applicable market regulators. These rules impose various requirements on public companies, including requiring certain corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to these requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal controls for financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. In particular, we must perform system and process evaluations and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Compliance with Section 404 may require that we incur substantial accounting expenses and expend significant management efforts. We have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal controls over financial reporting are not effective due to material weaknesses identified in our internal controls over financial reporting. These material weaknesses include: lack of a full-time Chief Financial Officer with accounting expertise, lack of a formal review process and ineffective oversight due to the lack of an audit committee comprised of independent directors. Remediating these weaknesses will require the expenditure of capital to hire additional staff and other measures. If we cannot take steps to timely remediate the weaknesses in our internal controls, the market price of our stock could decline if investors and others lose confidence in the reliability of our financial statements. Similarly, we could have difficulty attracting third-party lenders and market-makers in our common stock if such lenders or broker-dealers believe they cannot rely on our financial statements as materially accurate. In addition, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the SEC or other applicable regulatory authorities.
If a trading market in our common stock ever develops, the market price of our common stock can become volatile, leading to the possibility of its value being depressed at a time when you may want to sell your holdings. If a trading market in our common stock develops, the market price of our common stock could become volatile. Numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, may cause the market price of our common stock to fluctuate significantly. These factors include:
- our earnings releases, actual or anticipated changes in our earnings, fluctuations in our operating results or our failure to meet the expectations of financial market analysts and investors; - changes in financial estimates by us or by any securities analysts who might cover our stock; - speculation about our business in the press or the investment community; - significant developments relating to our relationships with our wholesale customers or suppliers; - stock market price and volume fluctuations of other publicly traded companies and, in particular, those that are in our industry; - customer demand for our products or luxury goods in general; - investor perceptions of our industry in general and Banjo & Matilda in particular; - the operating and stock performance of comparable companies; - general economic conditions and trends; - changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretation or principles; - loss of external funding sources; - sales of our common stock, including sales by our directors, officers or significant stockholders; and - additions or departures of key personnel.
Securities class action litigation is often instituted against companies following periods of volatility in their stock price. Should this type of litigation be instituted against us, it could result in substantial costs to us and divert our management's attention and resources. Moreover, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations for reasons unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These market fluctuations may adversely affect the price of our common stock and other interests in our Company at a time when you want to sell your interest in us.
We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future. We have never declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock and do not intend to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We anticipate that we will retain all of our future earnings for use in the development of our business and for general corporate purposes. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors. Accordingly, investors must rely on sales of their common stock after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investments.
Our common stock is considered "a penny stock" and, as a result, it may be difficult to trade a significant number of shares of our common stock. The SEC has adopted regulations that generally define "penny stock" to be an equity security that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to specific exemptions. Since our common stock has been eligible for quotation on the OTC markets (such as the bulletin board), the market price of our common stock has been less than $5.00 per share. We expect the market price for our common stock will remain less than $5.00 per share for the foreseeable future and, therefore, may be a "penny stock" according to SEC rules. This designation requires any broker or dealer selling these securities to disclose certain information concerning the transaction, obtain a written agreement from the purchaser and determine that the purchaser is reasonably suitable to purchase the securities. These rules may restrict the ability of brokers or dealers to sell our common stock and may affect the ability of investors hereunder to sell their shares. In addition, because our stock is quoted on the OTC markets, investors may find it difficult to obtain accurate quotations of the stock and may experience a lack of buyers to purchase such stock or a lack of market makers to support the stock price.
As a former shell company, holders of restricted shares of our common stock cannot rely on Rule 144 to resell their shares until the conditions of the rule are met. Prior to the consummation of the Exchange Agreement, we were considered a shell company. As a result, we are subject to the provisions of Rule 144(i) which limit reliance on Rule 144 by shareholders owning stock in a shell company (or a former shell company). Under current interpretations, unregistered shares issued after we first became a shell company cannot be resold under Rule 144 until the following conditions are met:
- We cease to be a shell company; - We remain subject to the Exchange Act reporting obligations; - We file all required Exchange Act reports during the preceding 12 months; and - At least one year has elapsed from the time we filed our "Form 10 information" reflecting the fact that we ceased to be a shell company.
Consequently, holders of restricted shares of our common stock cannot rely on Rule 144 to sell such shares, and may do so then only if we have then filed all required Exchange Act reports during the preceding 12 months.