{"id":266565,"date":"2021-06-03T21:16:34","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T18:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/100m-nj-deli-is-shell-company-in-reverse-merger-scheme-report\/"},"modified":"2021-06-03T21:16:34","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T18:16:34","slug":"100m-nj-deli-is-shell-company-in-reverse-merger-scheme-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/100m-nj-deli-is-shell-company-in-reverse-merger-scheme-report\/","title":{"rendered":"#$100M NJ deli is shell company in ‘reverse-merger’ scheme: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#$100M NJ deli is shell company in ‘reverse-merger’ scheme: report<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Hometown International \u2014 the New Jersey company\u00a0valued at more than $100 million on the stock market despite running just a single deli \u2014\u00a0is in fact a shell company that\u2019s part of a complex, international reverse-merger plan, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Peter Coker Jr., the Asia-based chairman and recently app<\/a>ointed CEO of Hometown, approached a Hong Kong hedge fund called Maso Capital Partners in early 2020 about using Hometown as a shell company for a reverse merger, according to the New York Times Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reverse mergers allow a private company to go public by merging with a firm that\u2019s already listed on a public market and essentially take the place of the pre-existing \u201cshell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process has been criticized for, among other matters, allowing companies to bypass the intense scrutiny and disclosure requirements of a traditional initial public offering.<\/p>\n

In this case, the idea reportedly was to use Hometown\u2019s listing on the over-the-counter US markets to give a foreign company access to American capital by merging with Hometown.<\/p>\n

Manoj Jain, an alumnus of Credit Suisse and co-chief investment officer of the Hong Kong-based hedge fund Maso, confirmed to the Times that the firm still plans to execute a merger with Hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took the opportunity to invest in Hometown at a reasonable valuation, with the ability to assist in its acquisition strategy using our extensive network of private companies,\u201d Jain is quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear exactly when Maso made its initial investment in Hometown, which the Times pegged at $2.5 million, but the stock price of the company was much lower at the beginning of 2020 and only began to rise in the spring and through the summer.<\/p>\n

\"Paul
Paul Morina, the principal and head wrestling coach of Paulsboro High School in New Jersey was listed in financial records as the president of Hometown International, which owns a single delicatessen.<\/figcaption>
Jersey Sports Zone Youtube<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jain added that he plans to find a target company that wants to merge with Hometown for under $500 million, according to the Times. The target would then take Hometown over, acquiring a greater than 51 percent share.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name changes, the ticker changes, the board changes, the management changes, everything changes as the target company enters the U.S. capital market,\u201d Jain explained.<\/p>\n

But all that doesn\u2019t answer the question of Hometown\u2019s bizarre valuation of nearly $100 million despite it losing cash and doing just over $35,000 in sales over the past two years combined.<\/p>\n

When asked to comment on the suspicious trading activity that pushed the firm\u2019s valuation to eyebrow-raising heights last year, Jain told the Times, \u201cMaso Capital has no knowledge on the buying or selling in HWIN.\u201d<\/p>\n

HWIN is the stock ticker that Hometown International uses.<\/p>\n

Jain noted that Maso has not traded any of its shares in the company since its initial investment.<\/p>\n

A former Securities and Exchange Commission staffer speculated to the Times that the run-up in Hometown\u2019s valuation could be part of a long-term plan to \u201cuplist,\u201d or move the stock from the over-the-counter markets, in which buyers and sellers deal directly with one another, to an exchange like the NYSE or Nasdaq, which are centralized.<\/p>\n

Market capitalization is one criteria exchanges consider when deciding to list companies. Listing on an exchange would make it easier for shareholders to trade stock in the company.<\/p>\n

The Times noted, though, that Hometown faced various other barriers to finding its way to a major exchange, if that was the goal.<\/p>\n

Representatives for Maso and Hometown did not return The Post\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

The latest development comes weeks after Hometown International first drew scrutiny when hedge fund manager David Einhorn pointed out the company\u2019s bizarre market capitalization.<\/p>\n

Einhorn used the publicly traded company, which is listed on the over-the-counter market, as a warning sign for investors in a letter to clients.<\/p>\n

Einhorn noted that the company had reached that eye-popping valuation despite reporting total sales of less than $37,000 over the past two years and was closed for nearly half of 2020 due to pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pastrami must be amazing,\u201d Einhorn wrote in April.<\/p>\n

Later that month, the management of Hometown International disavowed the company\u2019s valuation,\u00a0according to SEC filings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement is aware of no basis to support the company\u2019s stock price, based upon its revenue or assets,\u201d the company said in an April 30 statement.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#$100M NJ deli is shell company in ‘reverse-merger’ scheme: report” Hometown International \u2014 the New Jersey company\u00a0valued at more than $100 million on the stock market despite running just a single deli \u2014\u00a0is in fact a shell company that\u2019s part of a complex, international reverse-merger plan, according to a report. Peter Coker Jr., the Asia-based…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/nj-hometown-deli-02.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[108162,77411,28264,72388,70359],"class_list":["post-266565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-3-21","tag-david-einhorn","tag-new-jersey","tag-stock-market","tag-stocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}