DENVER, June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmland
Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) (the "Company" or "Farmland") today
announced that Anna Barber, the
named plaintiff in a shareholder derivative claim filed in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Colorado, has voluntarily dismissed her
derivative claim brought against the Company, and certain of its
officers and directors.
Barber's derivative claim arose from a "short-and-distort"
attack on Farmland, in which an anonymous short-seller writing
under the pseudonym "Rota Fortunae," later disclosed as
Quinton Mathews, published an
article on Seeking Alpha on July 11,
2018, alleging fraud at the Company. Barber's
voluntary dismissal comes on the heels of an astonishing admission
by Mathews that the July 2018 article
was full of false statements that drove down the Company's stock
price, allowing Mr. Mathews and his clients, including the hedge
fund who focused his attention on FPI, to profit when their short
positions in FPI's stock gained value in the wake of the defamatory
article's publication. The last three weeks have seen not
only Mr. Mathews' admission and Barber's voluntary dismissal, but
also a ruling by the Maryland Circuit Court dismissing two other
derivative claims based on the same July
2018 article.
"This voluntary dismissal is yet another step towards a complete
vindication of the Company after the 'short and distort' attack
against us and towards putting the related legal expenses behind
us," said Paul A. Pittman, the
Company's Chairman and CEO. "We call upon the plaintiffs and
the lawyers who filed a class action lawsuit against FPI based on
Mr. Mathews' admittedly false statements to rethink the ethics of
continuing their cases, and move on from their frivolous pursuit of
FPI stockholders' money."
About Farmland Partners Inc.
Farmland Partners Inc. is an internally managed real estate
company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American
farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate. As
of the date of this release, the Company owns approximately 157,000
acres in 16 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
South Dakota and Virginia. We have approximately 26 crop types
and over 100 tenants. The Company elected to be taxed as a real
estate investment trust, or REIT, for U.S. federal income tax
purposes, commencing with the taxable year ended December 31, 2014. Additional information:
www.farmlandpartners.com or (720) 452-3100.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within
the meaning of the federal securities laws, including, without
limitation, statements with respect to the Rota Fortunae Action and
the Turner Action. Forward-looking statements generally can be
identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may,"
"should," "could," "would," "predicts," "potential," "continue,"
"expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes,"
"estimates" or similar expressions or their negatives, as well as
statements in future tense. Although the Company believes that the
expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based
upon reasonable assumptions, beliefs and expectations, such
forward-looking statements are not predictions of future events or
guarantees of future performance and our actual results could
differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking
statements. For a description of certain of such factors see the
section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2020, and the Company's other filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking information
presented herein is made only as of the date of this press release,
and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking information to reflect changes in
assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events, or
otherwise.
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SOURCE Farmland Partners Inc.