Sino Agro Food, Inc. Announces Updates on Key Developments and Reports Progress on its 5-Year Plan

GUANGZHOU, China, March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sino Agro Food, Inc. (SIAF), an emerging integrated, diversified agriculture technology and organic food company (the "Company") with principal operations located throughout the People's Republic of China ("PRC") is pleased to report progress on company operations and developments.

Change in Financing Structure

In the past, SIAF has funded its many capital development projects with income from operations, grants from the Chinese government, and equity financing. As addressed later in this letter, in recent years, the company has achieved outstanding growth resulting in triple digit revenue growth and broadly advancing earnings per share.

For FY2012, management anticipates meeting or exceeding its annual guidance of US$.68 per basic share, which the Company attributes to its operational and financing growth strategies. The Company looks forward to reporting audited results in the coming weeks including Management's Discussion and Analysis along with detailed operational results for each segment of its business.

It has been the company's target to limit incremental financing as a percent of total capital expenditures to 10% - 15%.  However, the company recognizes that in 2012 this funding required the issuance of more shares than it had anticipated, due to a low share price.

Management believes that further significant growth prospects remain ahead for the Company, and that the prospective listing in Sweden will open alternative means for financing beyond those used to date. The Company has begun investigation into these possibilities. These include raising credit lines at the subsidiary level, debt financing or hybrid debt/equity financing at the parent level, and private placement or registration of shares at a price calculated within fair values of our current Net Tangible Assets.

While equity financing remains a viable engine to fund growth over and above capital developments financed by income from operations, Management will pursue any and all financing alternatives on an opportunistic basis, striving to employ methods most accretive to its fiscal health and bottom-line.

Update on First North Listing

The Company is in the process of cross listing to the NASDAQ-OMX First North Stockholm (FN) exchange in Sweden subject to final legal due diligence, multiple third party participation and review, and application approval.

The process is moving along well, with every indication of a successful listing; however, it is not plausible to project a number of days until cross listing. What the Company can and will do is inform shareholders whenever concrete information toward cross listing is available, and a time certain once all parameters have been met and the green light is received to move forward, and/or a date certain is established.

Since the last update, some professional third parties involved in the process have commented about ensuring adequate time to complete their trusted responsibilities. FN typically requires eight (8) trading days to review the Company Description, and approval may or may not be subject to further comments or questions requiring additional time.

For those interested in on-going updates to this process and other company communication, please register for investor alerts:

http://sinoagrofood.investorroom.com/alerts

Progress on 5-Year Plan
January 1, 2010 through September 30, 2012

Operations

In 2010, SIAF embarked upon a five-year plan to bring modern and proprietary agricultural technologies to a burgeoning market in China for organic food product.

SIAF is a consulting, engineering and technology based company in agriculture and aquaculture with a vertically integrated niche business model.  SIAF develops, produces and distributes high quality, high margin organic agriculture and aquaculture produce and products through well-established operating subsidiaries with a positive track record in China.

Management believes SIAF can substantially increase revenues, net income and gross margins having implemented a growth strategy that focuses on:

1. Vertically integrated developments in its fishery and beef sectors to bring primary produce and products directly from farms to the end consumers; and
2. Marketing its brands of high quality, healthy, natural and organic produce and products to the right markets, at the right price, and at the right time.  

Key to the plan is the ongoing integration of down stream, middle stream, and upstream activities into full modules across all fishery and beef operations. 

Downstream and midstream activities have been developed over the past years and are combining to generate healthy income. The table below shows the schedule for major company developments and related operational revenues being generated from 2010 to 2012:

In addition, during 2012 the Company commenced upstream activities for the distribution of its fish and beef products and import-export of its own and auxiliary products. SIAF also began involvement in the development and operations of two restaurant chains ("Leonie's" and "Bull"), including a central kitchen and other associated activities. As well, 2012 saw development and operation commence for both seafood and beef wholesale markets. The Company intends to inform shareholders of respective work in progress through newsletters, website updates, or SEC filings consistently throughout 2013.

As these activities are further developed into fully integrated modules, the synergies between pre-wholesale, wholesale, distribution, and retail business operations accrue incremental benefits.

This is the essence of our capital development growth strategies generating accretive financial results.

Financial Results

SIAF continues to track to plan both its capital development progress and financial performance. Through September 30, 2012, SIAF has achieved the growth rates shown below:

Financial Summary Highlights

(Performance derived from the 5 year Growth Plan)

Since SIAF started its growth plan from January 2010, the yearly growth rates on equity per share have been 21%, 22% and 23% in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. In absolute dollars, the increases in both revenue and net earnings year over year in 2012 exceeded that for 2010 and 2011, combined.

Management is confident that the overall financial performance of the Company achieved in 2012 has sufficiently compensated for the increase of issued and outstanding shares.

To date, the Directors have retired 18.4M of personal common shares to maintain healthy growth in NTA and EPS per share. If these metrics had not performed as well in 2012 (e.g. EPS growth of 69%), the Directors were prepared to retire an additional 6M shares. SIAF's Directors remain willing to retire up to 6M of personal holdings if future circumstances dictate.

The table below compares the achieved growth rates with those an analysis shows would have been achieved had the Company not implemented its financing and growth strategies. The analysis assumes that after the Company had sold the dairy business, normal developments in our HU Plantation and Fishery business maintained a growth rate of 25% per year.

Accretion to the shareholders
(comparison of financial performance with and without 5-year growth plan)

Actual performances of accretion to our shareholders evidence clearly the merit of our growth plan that has set SIAF's long term goals and prospects with strong fundamentals. Management is optimistic that the synergies between down, middle, and upstream processes will continue to advance as the remainder of the five-year plan is carried out.

The immediate horizon presents exciting new options and alternatives for cross-listing, continued growth, and financing capital development. Management looks forward to taking advantage of these opportunities in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders.

Over the coming year Management intends to provide new mid-quarterly updates of this nature either as press releases or in conjunction with enhancements and more frequent updates to its website and Facebook page.

I anticipate accelerated progress, and marked developments occurring throughout 2013.  Both the 10-K and its accompanying Investor Presentation will provide greater detail on what the Company anticipates in numbers (i.e. guidance) for this year.

The Company is ramping up in accordance with its five-year plan, and in some areas, exceeding original expectations.  As a fellow shareholder I am quite pleased with its development.  With ongoing improvements I remain confident that the Company has a solid and improving foundation to enhance its overall performance beneficial to all shareholders.

Solomon Lee

CEO, Sino Agro Food, Inc.

ABOUT SINO AGRO FOOD, INC.

Sino Agro Food, Inc. ("SIAF") (http://www.sinoagrofood.com) is an integrated, diversified agricultural technology and organic food company focused on developing, producing and distributing agricultural products in the Peoples Republic of China. The Company intends to focus on meeting the increasing demand of China's rising middle class for gourmet and high-quality food items. Current lines of business include the manufacture and distribution of beef and lamb products, fish products, bio-organic fertilizer, stock feed and cash crops.

Not a Broker/Dealer or Financial Advisor

Sino Agro Food, Inc. is not a Registered Broker/Dealer or a Financial Advisor, nor does it hold itself out to be a Registered Broker/Dealer or Financial Advisor. All material presented in this press release, on the Company's website or other media is not to be regarded as investment advice and is only for informative purposes. Readers should verify all claims and conduct their own due diligence before investing in Sino Agro Food, Inc.

Investing in small-cap, micro cap and penny stock securities is speculative and carries a high degree of risk.

No Offer of Securities

None of the information featured in this press release constitutes an offer or solicitation to purchase or to sell any securities of Sino Agro Food, Inc.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of SIAF and its subsidiary companies, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimates," "believes," "anticipates," "intends," expects" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are based on SIAF's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on SIAF. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting SIAF will be those anticipated by SIAF. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the Company) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. SIAF undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Sino Agro Food, Inc.