What: Shares of Amira Nature Foods Ltd. (NYSE: ANFI), a global provider of specialty rice products selling in 25 different countries under its own name and in more than 40 countries through third-party vendors, took off today, trading as much as 38% higher before settling down to a 30% gain by 3:00 p.m. ET.
So what: There appears to be a couple of factors at work here. First, Amira Nature Foods completed the filing of its Form 20-F with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. Also, ASA & Associates finished its audit of the company's past three fiscal years -- fiscal years 2015, 2014, 2013 -- and found no major changes to the financial results.
Essentially, it put an end to an unnerving three years of audits, litigation, and other business disruptions. That development, which sent the stock price higher, might also be causing some shorts to cover, causing a short squeeze as roughly 27% of the company's float is sold short.
Now what: With these issues out of the way, the company can resume its plans for growth, which include targeting to sell in almost 70 countries by 2017, especially in potentially high-growth areas such as the U.S. market.
