WUHAN, China, Dec. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- China Automotive
Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CAAS) ("CAAS" or the "Company"), a
leading power steering components and systems supplier in
China, today announced that a
settlement hearing will be held on February
5, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. EST at
the Court of Chancery in the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center,
500 North King Street, Wilmington,
DE 19801.
The purpose of the hearing is to determine among other things,
(i) whether the proposed Stipulation of Settlement ("Settlement")
should be approved as fair, reasonable, and adequate; (ii) whether
the Action should be dismissed with prejudice and the releases
specified and described in the Settlement (and in the Long-Form
Notice) should be granted; and (iii) whether Plaintiffs' Counsel's
application for an award of attorneys' fees and reimbursement of
litigation expenses should be approved.
If the Settlement is approved by the Court, no further action is
required by current CAAS stockholders. Because the Settlement is
non-monetary, CAAS stockholders do not have to submit a claim form
or take any other action in connection with the Settlement.
Management expects the impact of the suit on the Company's
consolidated financial statements to be immaterial.
Any objections to the proposed Settlement and/or Plaintiffs'
Counsel's application for an award of attorneys' fees and
reimbursement of litigation expenses, must be filed with the
Register in Chancery and delivered to Plaintiffs' Counsel and
Defendants' counsel and received no later than January 26, 2021, in accordance with the
instructions set forth in the Long-Form Notice.
Plaintiffs' Counsel is Eric L. Zagar,
Esq., Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP, 280 King of
Prussia Road, Radnor, PA
19087. Defendants' counsel is c/o Winston & Strawn LLP,
42nd Floor, Bank of China Tower, 1 Garden Road, Central,
Hong Kong.
On January 7, 2019, three
purported stockholders of the Company filed a stockholder
derivative complaint on behalf of the Company against the Company's
directors Hanlin Chen, Qizhou Wu and Guangxun
Xu and former directors Arthur
Wong and Robert Tung in the
Delaware Court of Chancery. The
complaint alleged that the directors had (a) breached their
fiduciary duties by approving and paying excessive compensation to
the non-employee directors of the Company, Arthur Wong, Guangxun
Xu and Robert Tung, and (b)
failed to make full and accurate disclosure of all material
information with respect to director qualification and director
compensation paid in 2017 in the Company's annual proxy statement
on Schedule 14A filed on October 10,
2018. The directors have engaged their own counsel to answer
this complaint. The directors of the Company will continue to
answer this complaint.
Postcards have been mailed to all shareholders regarding this
hearing and each shareholder has the right to attend this hearing.
Copies of the Settlement and the Long-Form Notice are available for
review at the "News Release" section of www.caasauto.com.
About China Automotive Systems, Inc.
Based in Hubei Province,
the People's Republic of China,
China Automotive Systems, Inc. is a leading supplier of power
steering components and systems to the Chinese automotive industry,
operating through ten Sino-foreign joint ventures. The Company
offers a full range of steering system parts for passenger
automobiles and commercial vehicles. The Company currently offers
four separate series of power steering with an annual production
capacity of over 6 million sets of steering gears, columns and
steering hoses. Its customer base is comprised of leading auto
manufacturers, such as China FAW Group, Corp., Dongfeng Auto Group
Co., Ltd., BYD Auto Company Limited, Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd.
and Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. in China, and Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor
Company in North America. For more
information, please visit: http://www.caasauto.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that are "forward-looking
statements" as defined under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements represent our
estimates and assumptions only as of the date of this press
release. These forward-looking statements include statements
regarding the qualitative and quantitative effects of the
accounting errors, the periods involved, the nature of the
Company's review and any anticipated conclusions of the Company or
its management and other statements that are not historical facts.
Our actual results may differ materially from the results described
in or anticipated by our forward-looking statements due to certain
risks and uncertainties. As a result, the Company's actual results
could differ materially from those contained in these
forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including
those described under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's
Form 10-K annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on March 28, 2019, and in
documents subsequently filed by the Company from time to time with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. If the outbreak of COVID-19
is not effectively and timely controlled, our business operations
and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected as
a result of the deteriorating market outlook for automobile sales,
the slowdown in regional and national economic growth, weakened
liquidity and financial condition of our customers or other factors
that we cannot foresee. Any of these factors and other factors
beyond our control, could have an adverse effect on the overall
business environment, cause uncertainties in the regions where we
conduct business, cause our business to suffer in ways that we
cannot predict and materially and adversely impact our business,
financial condition and results of operations. A prolonged
disruption or any further unforeseen delay in our operations of the
manufacturing, delivery and assembly process within any of our
production facilities could continue to result in delays in the
shipment of products to our customers, increased costs and reduced
revenue. We expressly disclaim any duty to provide updates to any
forward-looking statements made in this press release, whether as a
result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For further information, please contact:
Jie Li
Chief Financial Officer
China Automotive Systems, Inc.
Email: jieli@chl.com.cn
Kevin Theiss
Awaken Advisors
+1-212-521-4050
Email: Kevin@awakenlab.com
View original
content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-automotive-systems-announces-hearing-on-february-5-2021-on-proposal-to-settle-stockholder-derivative-lawsuit-301187018.html
SOURCE China Automotive Systems, Inc.