Origin Agritech Ltd. (China)

The Company, through its subsidiaries, is principally engaged in hybrid crop seed development, production and distribution business.
The Company s business focus is primarily on the corn seed development and distribution business and research focused on genetically enhanced breeding technologies in agricultural crops.
The Company, along with its subsidiaries, is focused on agricultural biotechnology, operating in the PRC. Its seed research and development activities specialize in crop seed breeding and genetic improvement.
The company engages in the development and distribution of seed products; and research on genetically enhanced breeding technologies in agricultural crops. Its products include corn, soybean, canola, and rice seeds. The company is also involved in the development, production, and distribution of hybrid crop seeds, as well as develops hybrid seed technology. In addition, it operates an e-commerce platform. The company has a collaboration agreement with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Maize Improvement Center, Henan Agriculture University, China Agricultural University, and Zhejiang University for seed genetic modifications and biotechnologies.
HISTORY
1997 The Company started as a hybrid corn seed company in 1997 as the first private seed company in China.
2003 Chardan China Acquisition Corp. (“Chardan”), the predecessor of the Company, was a blank check company (SPAC) organized as a corporation under the laws of the State of Delaware on December 5, 2003, formed for the purpose of effecting a business combination with companies having operations based in China.
2005 The Company was first incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on February 10, 2005.
2006 The Company is governed by the BVI Business Companies Act, 2004, or BCA, by re-registration on July 10, 2006.
2005 The Company s common stock had been listed on the Nasdaq Global Market from November 8, 2005 to June 25, 2007.
2007 On June 26, 2007, its common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
2017 In September 2017, the Company sold its seed production and distribution business to Beijing Shihui Agricultural Development Co. Ltd. pursuant to a Master Transaction Agreement. The first stage of the sale was completed on July 31, 2017 pursuant to which the Company sold its production, processing and distribution services, production and processing centers and marketing centers to Shihui.
2018 In October 2018, the Company identified a strategic investor, Longhan Investment Management, Co., Ltd ( Longhan ) and entered into a Share Subscription Agreement with Longhan, and the agreement was later assigned to Tiger Capital Fund SPC (“Tiger Fund”).
2019 On May 17, 2019, the Company entered into a Cooperation Framework Agreement with Beijing Changping Technology Innodevelop Group (BC-TID), an entity owned by the government of Changping District of Beijing City. Under this agreement, BC-TID and Origin will form a new entity, which 51 and 49 of equity interests would be owned by BC-TID and the Company, respectively. Based on the agreement, Beijing Origin will contribute the headquarters building in Beijing and certain of its seed technology assets related to genetically modified seeds to the new entity.
The Company s ordinary shares, have traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market since June 5, 2019. The Company s ordinary shares are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market where they trade under the “SEED” ticker symbol.
2022 In 2022, the Company registered Hainan Aoyu in Hainan province which is located in the tropical region of China. Having a subsidiary and operations in Hainan will allow us to conduct research during the winter period. Origin State Harvest holds the 100 ownership of Hainan Aoyu through a VIE arrangement.
Also in 2022 the Company founded a US subsidiary OAL SMY Limited in New Jersey, which has conducted limited operations.
2023 In 2023, the Company entered into regional joint venture for corn supply chain and Nutrition Enhanced Corn (NEC) grow - by - contract business. The joint venture is Baodao Origin in Henan province. The Company indirectly holds 51 of the joint venture and the remaining equity interest is held by a feed process enterprise.