Coastcast Corporation reported its optimistic outlook and termination of marketing of the company for sale.

Commenting, Hans Buehler, Chairman and CEO, stated: “The board of directors of Coastcast convened yesterday to deal with a number of issues. The special committee of the board reported on the status of the effort to find a buyer of the company. The offer to take the company private by my fellow director, Tony Novelly, and me has been withdrawn. Other proposals to acquire the company were received and determined to be unacceptable by both the special committee and the board of directors. Under these circumstances, the special committee recommended and the board approved terminating the marketing of the company and the special committee was dissolved.

“Since the company's deregistration of its common stock under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the trading of that stock has been removed from the OTC Bulletin Board and is now reported on the Pink Sheets. This deregistration is expected to result in significant savings to the company. Although the company will no longer be required to file periodic reports with the SEC, we expect to continue to do the following:

  1. We will issue an annual report to shareholders, including audited financial statements.
  2. We will hold an annual meeting of shareholders for election of directors.
  3. We will make quarterly news releases and report on sales,earnings and other pertinent information.
  4. We will make news releases on any other important matters.

“We are optimistic about the future of the company. The past several years have been most difficult, with much of our work migrating to China. The worst part was that we did not receive tooling for new parts or programs from our golf customers. This has changed during the past eight months. We are now tooled up on most new programs with our principal customers and anticipate that we will receive a portion of their business. We are optimistic that our business will grow again and I am anticipating a significant increase in sales over the next year.

“We expect continuing but declining losses for the remainder of the current year. We anticipate a profit in the first quarter of 2004 and to remain profitable for the rest of that year.

“We continue to be in a sound cash position. Our cash position will get even better when the Gardena property is sold, and we are hopeful that will occur by the end of this year. We have the required resources to take care of our business needs with or without that sale.

“We realize that during these past difficult times, we also have had loyal shareholders that continued to support us. We appreciate and are grateful for your support. We will do what is necessary to keep earning your confidence and support. Hopefully better times are before us.”