News Release
NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES
Organto Closes $5.2 million in Over-Subscribed Private Placement Financing; Announces Proposed New Board Members
Vancouver, BC, Canada, September 12, 2017 – Organto Foods Inc. (OGO: TSX-V, OGOFF: OTC) (“Organto”) is pleased to announce the closing of the 3rd and final tranche of its previously announced non-brokered private placement. Gross proceeds of approximately $2,934,750 were raised in the 3rd tranche from the sale of 19,565,000 units at a price of $0.15 per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one non-transferrable warrant to purchase one additional common share of Organto, exercisable at a price of $0.25 for a period of 24 months from the closing date. Organto was over-subscribed for the private placement and raised a combined gross total of $5,163,531 before costs and finders’ fees, well above the $3.45 million announced on May 11, 2017. Of the total proceeds, $446,000 was used to retire existing debt.
“We are thrilled to welcome our new shareholders to the Organto family,” commented Mr. Arnoud Maas, CEO. “As we continue to advance our year-round vertically integrated business model in branded organic value-added vegetables we believe this funding will be instrumental in increasing our supply to meet market demand through additional strategic third-party supply relationships, combined with the continued development of our infrastructure to meet this demand.” added Mr. Maas.
Organto also announces that it will hold its Annual General Meeting on September 27, 2017. At that meeting shareholders will be asked to increase the size of the Board of Directors from 5 to 6 members. The Board is proposing the additions of Mr. Arnoud Maas, CEO, Steve Bromley, currently a Strategic Advisor, and Mr. Claudio Schreier. All bring extensive food, retail and business development experience to Organto. Mr. Marcus Meurs and Mr. Peter Gianulis are not standing for re-election. The bios of Arnoud Mass, Steve Bromley, and Claudio Schreier can be viewed at the following link:
www.organto.com/images/agm/proposed-bios.pdf
In the third tranche of the private placement, Organto paid finders’ fees of 8% in cash totaling $176,400 and issued 8% in non-transferrable finders’ warrants exercisable to acquire up to 1,176,000 common shares of Organto for a period of 24 months from the closing date, at a price of $0.15 per share. In total, Organto paid finders’ fees totaling $262,676 in cash and issued non-transferrable finders’ warrants exercisable to acquire up to 1,751,173 common shares of Organto for a period of 24 months from the closing date at a price of $0.15 per share.
The shares, warrants and finder’s warrants are subject to a four month hold period expiring on January 11, 2018.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD,
Arnoud Mass
CEO
Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
For more information contact:
Investor Relations
604-634-0970
1-888-818-1364
info@organto.com
Proposed Additional Board Member Bios
AGM September 27, 2017
Steve Bromley
Mr. Bromley brings over 30 years of food industry experience to Organto, having served as CEO and a Director of SunOpta Inc. from 2007-2015. SunOpta is a global leader in non-GMO, organic and specialty foods with revenues in excess of $1 billion, substantial manufacturing and integrated supply operations, and a diverse global customer base. Mr. Bromley joined SunOpta in 2001 as CFO and served in that role until 2004 when he was appointed President and COO, through to his appointment as CEO. Prior to joining SunOpta, Mr. Bromley spent 15 years in the dairy and meat industries and four years in public accounting. Mr. Bromley is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified General Accountant.
Arnoud Maas
Mr. Maas has a long history in the consumer goods sector, particularly in the European and Asian food divisions of the former Sara Lee Corporation, which had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its product in over 180 nations worldwide. In the last three years, he has worked closely with the CEO and Board of Vroegop, a leading vertically integrated organic food company based in the Netherlands, where he assisted in strategically opening new distribution channels and market opportunities. Early in his career, Mr. Maas was a partner at Accenture, Kurt Salmon, as well as Capgemini Consulting, specializing in the consumer goods sector. He later held senior executive positons in retail, including as CEO of a leading chain of bookstores, and ultimately in the food sector, where he gained essential multi-jurisdictional management experience and extensive industry contacts. Mr. Maas holds a business degree from Sheffield University in the UK and a Masters in Economics from Keio University in Tokyo.
Claudio Schreier
Mr. Schreier is the CEO of Mont Blanc Asset Management, an independent asset manager, founded in 2015, with offices in Nassau, Bahamas and Sao Paulo, Brazil, with USD 350 MM in assets in different classes as real estate, venture capital, private equity, credit financing. Mr. Schreier has more than twenty years of experience as entrepreneur, executive, and consultant in areas of financial services (collection, restructuring, M&A), strategic planning, and organizational restructuring. He was responsible for creating, structuring, developing and executing solutions and projects that add up to over USD 250 million for companies such as Itaú-Unibanco, Bradesco, Santander, Oi, Homerplast, Revitech, Indoor Media, Acallanto Clinic, GM, Lycos (terra.com), and A.T. Kearney. Mr. Schreier graduated in Production Engineering from University of São Paulo (Politecnica School), post-graduated in Marketing from ESPM, and holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
