Exhibit 99.1
June 28, 2019
PRESS RELEASE
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| | 4-1-3 Taihei,Sumida-ku, Tokyo |
| | Pepper Food Service Co., Ltd. |
| | Kunio Ichinose, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer |
| | (Code number: 3053) TSE 1st Section NASDAQ (Ticker Symbol: KPFS) |
| | Inquiries: | | Ichiro Yasuda, General Manager of General Affairs Department |
| | Telephone number: | | +81 (0)3 3829 3210 |
Notice of Plan to Delist American Depositary Receipts from the U.S. NASDAQ Global Market
and Deregister with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
On June 14, 2019, Pepper Food Service Co., Ltd. (“we,” “us,” or the “Company”) announced that it will delist the Company’s American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) from the U.S. NASDAQ Global Market (“NASDAQ”) and will submit an application for deregistration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
The Company hereby announces that it has notified NASDAQ on June 28, 2019 (Eastern Time in the U.S.) that the Company will apply for voluntary delisting of its ADRs from NASDAQ and announces the anticipated schedule for the delisting and deregistration.
Reasons for the application to delist
In September 2018, we listed the ADRs on NASDAQ in order to raise awareness of the Company and improve our brand power, as we looked to open new directly-managed restaurants and franchise vendors in the U.S. for both our “Ikinari! Steak” and “Pepper Lunch” business formats. Since then, we have been working to proactively disclose information to our shareholders and investors, complying with disclosure obligations under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act (the “Exchange Act”) and preparing consolidated financial statements according to international accounting standards.
However, on February 14th of this year, the closure of seven “Ikinari Steak!” restaurants run by our U.S. subsidiary was announced, and trade in our ADRs listed on NASDAQ has also been sluggish. As a result of these and other factors, we deem that it no longer makes economic sense for the Company to continue with the listing, and we have decided to apply to delist from NASDAQ and deregister with the SEC.
