AsiaBest officially suspended

The PSE advised the investing public that it has officially suspended AsiaBest [ABG 26.20 ?1.1%; 0% avgVol] [link] under the Revised Rules on Backdoor Listing (the “Revised Rules”), pending ABG’s “compliance with the applicable requirements under the Revised Backdoor Listing Rules.” The suspension went into effect at 1:00 PM on Monday, while ABG was still technically halted. Under the Revised Rules, the PSE will lift the suspension one full trading day after ABG provides “comprehensive corporate disclosure” on the transaction with PremiumLands Corp. (PLC), which will include information like a timetable for the transaction, the reason/purpose of the transaction, and a statement about the business pursuits by ABG as a result of the backdoor listing. ABG must provide this within five trading days. 

MB BOTTOM-LINE:  I’ve seen a lot of confusion on the message boards about ABG, so I just wanted to briefly touch on what’s happening. A backdoor listing is considered a “change of control”, and that’s a special case that requires a different set of rules to help protect the minority shareholders from harm. The stock was halted after news of the potential backdoor listing was made public, and the conversion from “halt” to “suspension” only serves to start that five-day clock on ABG’s part to get the comprehensive corporate disclosure out to the public so that we can all get a better sense of what is happening. The PSE’s goal here is to increase the information available to the public on this massive change, and to give investors enough of a chance to consume and understand those changes before it flips the switch and lets us trade the stock again. For new traders, this is all part of the shell company speculation game. It’s unnerving to have your shares locked up by this suspension, but assuming the parties (ABG and PLC) reasonably execute their respective responsibilities here, you should be back to trading in relatively short order. For seasoned vets, we know that it can sometimes take a few days for this information to be assembled, so bank on it taking the maximum amount of time and then just be pleasantly surprised if this resolves before the Christmas Break. 
 

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