Vintage Wine Estates gets more time to avoid stock delisting as restructuring plan pursued

Vintage Wine Estates, maker of dozens of brands such as B.R. Cohn and Ace Cider in Sonoma County and Clos Pegase in Napa Valley, has been notified that it will get more time to fix its listing on a major stock exchange after its share price slumped amid efforts to turn around the business.

The Santa Rosa-anchored vintner on Tuesday said the Nasdaq Stock Exchange had granted six more months — until Sept. 9 — to get the stock price back above $1 a share for more than 10 consecutive trading days to stay in compliance with rules for the exchange’s Global Market.

The company’s share price has been below $1 since the middle of last year and has been hovering around 50 cents since December. The stock closed at 56 cents Tuesday.

But the company at the same time is pursuing a shift of its stock listing to the exchange’s Capital Market, which has lower listing requirements and is dominated by businesses with smaller levels of market capitalization, or “small cap.” The company said Thursday that Nasdaq had approved its application for the shift in markets.

Nasdaq on Sept. 9 of last year informed Vintage that it risked having its stock removed. That started an 180-day “compliance period,” which ran through Monday.

A Vintage spokesperson told the Business Journal at the time of the delisting notice that companies often have up to a year to correct the issue and that a shift to the Capital Market was one solution.

Vintage announced the update on the stock listing as part of a delayed midyear report of its fiscal year. The company provided a vague update on its announcement in January that it would be “monetizing,” or selling, assets such as brands, facilities and inventory that don’t fit the more focused future direction of the company.

“I am encouraged with the progress we are making with our asset sales process given the quantity and quality of our discussions with prospective buyers,” said Seth Kaufman, CEO since late October. “Our concerted effort has resulted in numerous attractive indications of interest, bids and a nonbinding letter of intent across stand-alone DTC operations, certain production services businesses, and other noncore assets. The sale of these assets will provide cash to reduce debt and we believe will simultaneously help us to substantially reduce costs which have been elevated by these less profitable businesses.”

Assets the company noted in January that are for sale include the Viansa Winery in Sonoma Valley and the Clos Pegase Winery in Napa Valley.

Vintage debuted on the Nasdaq Global Market in March 2020 at $9.68 a share via a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The stock peaked at $12.63 in June 2021 but was under downward pressure throughout last year, dropping just after its quarterly report in mid-September 2022 from about $5.50 to around $3.

The price dropped again early last month from just under $3 when the company announced a restructuring plan that included co-founder Pat Roney out as CEO, President Terry Wheatley stepping up into day-to-day operations and a gutting of about half the number of variations in the portfolio.

The stock had dipped below $1 in June but rallied just before a business update July 20. That’s when Vintage noted that Wheatley had just resigned and recent Moët Hennessy North America CEO Seth Kaufman would be coming in as chief executive, effective Oct. 30.

Vintage Wine Estates has its headquarters in Incline Village, Nevada, and its operational main offices in Santa Rosa.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.