Asta Funding, Inc. Announces Receipt of Nasdaq Non-Compliance Letter

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., July 20, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Asta Funding, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFI) (“Asta” or the “Company”) announced today that on July 17, 2018, it received a Staff Determination Letter to Delist (the “Letter”) from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) notifying the Company that since it remains delinquent in filing its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2017 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018, it has not regained compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) (the “Rule”), which requires timely filing of periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). 

Previously, Nasdaq had granted the Company an extension until July 16, 2018 to regain compliance with the Rule. The Letter indicated that the Company’s securities would be subject to delisting on July 26, 2018 as a result of the Company's non-compliance with the Rule unless the Company timely requests a hearing before the Nasdaq Hearings Panel (the “Panel”).

The Company intends to timely request a hearing before the Panel, at which hearing it will present its plan to evidence compliance with the Rule and request the continued listing of its securities on Nasdaq pending its return to compliance. Such request will automatically stay any suspension or delisting action by Nasdaq for a period of 15 days. The stay may be extended at the option of the Panel upon the Company's request and support of such extension, and the Company intends to ask the Panel for a further stay concurrent with its request for a hearing and pending the ultimate conclusion of the hearing process.

About Asta Funding, Inc.

Asta Funding, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFI), headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, is a diversified financial services company that assists consumers and serves investors through the strategic management of three complementary business segments: Personal Injury Claims, Consumer Debt and Disability Advocacy. Founded in 1994 as a sub-prime auto lender, Asta now manages business units that include funding of personal injury claims through its wholly owned subsidiary, Simia Capital, LLC; acquiring and managing international distressed consumer receivables through its wholly owned subsidiary, Palisades Acquisitions LLC; and benefits advocacy through its wholly owned subsidiary, GAR Disability Advocates, LLC. For additional information, please visit our website at http://www.astafunding.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

All statements in this news release other than statements of historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding our future financial position, business strategy, budgets, projected revenues, projected costs, and plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” or “believes” or the negative thereof, or any variation thereon, or similar terminology or expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us that may cause our actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors which could materially affect our results and our future performance include, without limitation, the restatement of previously issued financial statements, the identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting and our ability remediate those material weaknesses, our ability to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing standards and maintain the continued listing of our securities on Nasdaq, our ability to purchase defaulted consumer receivables at appropriate prices, changes in government regulations that affect our ability to collect sufficient amounts on our defaulted consumer receivables, our ability to employ and retain qualified employees, changes in the credit or capital markets, changes in interest rates, deterioration in economic conditions, negative press regarding the debt collection industry which may have a negative impact on a debtor’s willingness to pay the debt we acquire, and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing, as well as other factors set forth under “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2016, and other filings with the SEC.  All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us, or persons acting on our behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing. Except as required by law, we assume no duty to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Investor Contact:

Bruce R. Foster, CFO
Asta Funding, Inc.
(201) 567-5648