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Debra BorchardtJune 13, 2018

5min00

It’s time for your Daily Hit of cannabis financial news for June 13, 2018.

On The Site

Green Thumb Industries

Chicago-based cannabis company Green Thumb Industries (GTI) will begin trading on June 13 under the ticker symbol “GTII” on the Canadian Securities Exchange. GTI’s owner VCP23 LLC did a reverse take over (RTO) of Bayswater Uranium Corporation raising C$87 million or $67 million through a private placement.

VCP reported revenue in its filing for the three months ending March 31, 2018, as $10.9 million with a gross profit of $4.8 million and a net loss of $1.5 million. VCP also reported that its total revenue for the year ending December 31, 2017, was $16.5 million with a net loss of $4 million.

Lab Testing

new report from the Alaska Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office and the Department of Environmental Conservation found that labs testing marijuana for potency were delivering very different results.

Different labs using similar methodology should have reported similar results, instead, the results came back and they weren’t even close. For example, the test took a marijuana muffin, cookie crumbs, capsules and dried flower and brought them to the only two testing labs in the state. The results delivered a large margin of error between the two.

In Other News

Farm Bill Passes

The Farm Bill passed with the attached hemp legalization language. According to CNBC, The Senate Agriculture Committee passed the 2018 farm bill in a 20-1 vote despite an attempt to tighten farmer subsidies. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, cast the sole “no” vote, because his amendment to limit subsidy payments wasn’t added to the proposed bill. The farm bill includes hemp legalization legislation that is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. McConnell made a case during Wednesday’s agriculture panel meeting for supporting the hemp legalization.

22nd Century Group Inc.

22nd Century Group, Inc. (NYSE: XXII) announced that it the Company will be added to the Russell 2000Russell 3000, and Russell Global Indexes when FTSE Russell (Russell) reconstitutes its U.S. and global equity indexes on June 22, 2018. Russell’s preliminary announcement of its annual reconstitution of these Indexes, which includes 22nd Century Group, was posted on the Russell website on Friday, June 8, 2018, after the U.S. stock market closed.

Aurora Cannabis Inc.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX: ACB) (OTCQB: ACBFF) announced that it intends to complete a $7 million investment in Choom Holdings Inc.  (CSE:CHOO) (OTCQB: CHOOF), whereby Aurora will receive 9,859,155 common shares from Choom’s treasury, priced at $0.71 per share (the “Transaction”), representing an 8% ownership interest. Choom currently operates two late-stage applicants under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (“ACMPR”). Choom has agreements in place to acquire two additional late-stage applicant craft growers in BC and Saskatchewan, including a facility in Sooke, British Columbia, anticipated to receive its cultivation license from Health Canada in the third quarter of 2018.

The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd.

The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TGOD.TO) (TGODF) announced that, effective June 13th, the company has secured DTC Eligibility. The Green Organic Dutchman also wishes to announce that it will begin trading on the OTCQX Best Market June 14th under the symbol “TGODF.”


Video StaffMay 25, 2018

3min00

It’s actually been a fairly quiet week for cannabis financial news.

In political news, the New York Democratic Party said it is endorsing legalizing marijuana. The party recently held its primary and while actress Cynthia Nixon made a big splash, Governor Cuomo overwhelmingly won the race. Nixon was pushing hard for legalization and managed to nudge Cuomo into a more accommodating stance towards legalization.

Cannabis Wheaton (CBWTF) landed a gigantic C$100 million deal with a group of underwriters led by BMO Capital Markets. The group has the option for an over-allotment that could bring in an additional C$15 million. The deal is expected to close near May 31.

Newstrike Resources (NWKRF) snagged a private placement deal valued at $40 million. The net proceeds will be used for growth and working capital.

Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) is continuing its acquisition push with its latest decision to take a 9% ownership stake in CTT pharmaceutical Holdings valued at $1 million. The company has been on a spending spree as it builds an empire to compete in the Canadian market.

Leafbuyer Technologies (LBUY) was flagged by the OTC Markets group for heavy stock promotion. The company has spent thousands for promotion while reporting a million dollar loss in the last quarter. In fact, most of the company’s revenue has been spent on promotion. The company said its insiders haven’t sold any stock and said the promotions haven’t increased the stock price. The flagging is part of an OTC Markets push to make sure investors are informed about stock promotions.

Cronos Group (CRON) uplisted its stock from the Toronto Venture Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock began trading at its new home on Wednesday.

Practically taking its place is Khiron Life Sciences, which will begin trading on Friday at the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol KHRN. It’s the first cannabis producer with core operations in Columbia.


StaffMarch 13, 2018
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4min01

Here are the quick hits for March 13, 2018:

Aurora Cannabis

Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) announced the grant of three permits by the Australian Government, Department of Health, for the importation of cannabis into Australia for research purposes. The Permits were granted to the Pharmacy Australia Centre of Excellence (PACE) at the University of Queensland and allow PACE to import shipments of cannabis plant material for research purposes. Aurora, in turn, has received the required Canadian permits to export the cannabis to PACE. The cannabis will be shipped from Canada by Aurora and used for PreveCeutical’s soluble gel drug delivery research program, which is being conducted by PreveCeutical’s research partner UniQuest Pty Inc. and led by PreveCeutical’s Chief Research Officer, Dr. Harendra Parekh.

Nutritional High International Inc.

Nutritional High. (SPLIF) announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire a 75% interest in cannabis producer Green Therapeutics in the State of Nevada. In conjunction with the acquisition, the company will also purchase certain lands and premises owned by Nevada-based cultivation company Meridian Companies which is utilized by Green Therapeutics. Nutritional High and Green Therapeutics have also entered into a binding lock-up agreement while purchase and sale agreements are negotiated and due diligence is completed.

Aphria Inc.

Aphria (APHQF) announced that it received a license amendment from Health Canada that provides Aphria with additional production space of 200,000 square feet, as part of its Part III expansion at its facility in Leamington, Ontario. This will more than triple the Company’s production capacity of medical cannabis from 9,000 kg annually to 30,000 kg annually.

CannaRoyalty Corp. 

CannaRoyalty (CNNRF) announced the appointment of Brent Cox to the Board of Directors of Trichome Yield Corp. a subsidiary of CannaRoyalty. Following this board appointment, the board consists of five members, four of whom are independent of CannaRoyalty. Cox is a founding partner of The Inception Companies, a private investment vehicle focused on the global cannabis market, following a number of years at The Yucaipa Companies, where he helped invest and monitor over USD$4.0 billion of private equity transactions. He currently serves on the boards of two successful vertically integrated U.S. cannabis companies, MedMen and The Pharm.

The Hydropothecary Corporation

Hydropothecary announced the addition of three new members to its management team. Roch Vaillancourt (General Counsel), Sonia Isabel (Vice-President of Sales), and Jocelyn Racine (Vice-President of Finance) bring decades of management, financial, business, and legal experience to Hydropothecary as the company strengthens its leadership in the lead-up to the legalization of adult-use recreational cannabis.

TerraTech

TerraTech (TRTC) gave a business update ahead of the company’s earnings. It read as follows:
Company secures $40 million investment, to be made in eight tranches of $5 million over 24 months. Capex to be directed toward the build out of the Company’s cultivation, extraction and retail infrastructure in California, Nevada and New Jersey Capital injection positions the Company to leverage M&A opportunities and ramp its sales and marketing strategy 1 for 15 reverse split to be effected on March 13, 2018, to position the Company for a potential uplisting.


Debra BorchardtJanuary 25, 2018
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6min00

After months of nasty fighting, Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) and CanniMed Therapeutics (CMMDF) have finally come to friendly terms. The once-hostile takeover bid by Aurora Cannabis to acquire CanniMed has ended on friendly terms.

On Wednesday, the Special Committee of the CanniMed Board agreed to support a new offer made by Aurora to buy all outstanding shares of CanniMed not owned by Aurora. In addition, the new offer will be supported by the locked-up CanniMed shareholders representing 36% of CanniMed’s outstanding shares and by Brent Zettl, President, and CEO of CanniMed.

A High Price To Pay For Cannabis

Originally, Aurora had planned to pay $24 a share, it has now been forced to pay $43 – a 181% premium over the closing price of CanniMed Shares on November 14, 2017. It’s a 79% increase in the previous offer Cap Price of $ 24.00. The total value of the deal is now approximately $1.1 billion based on Aurora’s implied share price of $ 12.65.

According to the company statement, “The maximum amount of cash available under the amended offer will be $140 million, and the number of Aurora shares to be issued will be between approximately 72 million (assuming full cash elections) and 84 million (assuming full share elections and no cash elections). Assuming maximum cash elections, each CanniMed shareholder would receive $5.70 in cash and 2.9493 Aurora shares.”

Aurora shares fell 5% on the news of the finalized deal and were lately trading at $11.35 on the OTC Marketplace.

Newstrike Deal Is Off

During the hostile days of the attempted takeover, CanniMed had embarked on an acquisition of Newstrike Resources (NWKRF). That deal is now over. CanniMed entered into a termination agreement with Newstrike that is resulting in breakup fee payment of a $9.5 million.

Aurora had characterized the acquisition and supply agreements signed with Newstrike as “bizarre.” Questioning why CanniMed would sign a supply agreement with a company it was going to acquire. Newstrike shareholders had approved of CanniMed acquiring the company. Newstrike shares plunged 18% on the breakup news and were lately trading at $1.19.

Reuters had reported that Aurora was considering buying both companies, but that now looked to be premature.

Management Comments

“We are very pleased to have come to terms with CanniMed on this powerful strategic combination that will establish a best-in-class cannabis company with operations across Canada and around the world,” said Terry Booth, CEO of Aurora. “Market recognition of Aurora`s continued performance and strategy execution since we first announced our intention to acquire CanniMed allows us to share that benefit directly with CanniMed shareholders by increasing the offer price, as well as by offering a cash component. ”

Brent Zettl, President, and CEO of CanniMed, added, “A testament to the great team at CanniMed, this transaction clearly confirms that the Company has been highly successful in becoming a preeminent global leader in the medical cannabis industry. In this leadership position, CanniMed has provided invaluable education, resources, support and relief of symptoms for thousands of patients served around the globe.”

“This is an excellent outcome for both Aurora’s and CanniMed’s shareholders after a hard-fought and diligently negotiated process,” said Cam Battley, Aurora’s Chief Corporate Officer. “We now look forward to warmly welcoming CanniMed’s employees and forging one unified team. Together, under the Aurora banner, we’ll continue to invest in domestic and international growth, and continue executing on our strategy of building the most dynamic, innovative integrated cannabis company in the world.”

Was It Worth It?

The two sides were publicly very nasty to each during the battle leading many industry insiders to feel that there was more going on behind the scenes than the two companies let on. So, whether the companies can truly bury the hatchet will remain to be seen.

Plus, at $1 billion Aurora will need to sell a lot of cannabis to break even on this deal. Aurora says it is “on track for a total production capacity of around 200,000 kg per annum.” According to Statista, the average price Aurora gets per gram is $8. That translates to $1.6 billion a year. However, that is a total production, not just CanniMed. CanniMed is only able to grow 7,000 kg a year at this time. That’s only $56 million. Even if CanniMed can ramp up and grow more, it will be years before Aurora makes a profit on this deal.


Debra BorchardtJanuary 22, 2018
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4min01

The hostile takeover bid between Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) and CanniMed Therapeutics (CMMDF) is looking less hostile these days. CanniMed said that it will continue discussions with Aurora as the two companies faced a 5pm deadline today. CanniMed said that the two have decided to extend their talks.

During this extension of conversation, neither of the two companies will ask for proxies from their shareholders and Aurora will hit the pause button on buying more shares of CanniMed in the open market. Both companies agree to suspend making public statements about the transaction unless it is mutually agreed. The two companies also agreed not to move forward with discussions on alternative transactions either.

CanniMed said it still plans to hold a special shareholders’ meeting for Thursday, January 25 with the cutoff for proxies on Wednesday at 10 am eastern time with regards to the Newstrike acquisition.

The History Of The Deal

Originally, Aurora Cannabis initiated a plan in November to acquire CanniMed Therapeutics for C$24 a share, which at the time was a premium price. CanniMed rejected the offer and began a campaign the fight the acquisition. A war of nasty words took place with competing press releases as each company trashed the other publicly. CanniMed then decided to acquire Newstrike Resources (NWKRF) as a way to combat the deal.

Aurora publicly stated it didn’t think the Newstrike acquisition was a good deal for CanniMed and last week CanniMed said it was postponing a shareholder vote on the deal. Newstrike shareholders had voted in favor of being acquired by CanniMed. Today it is saying the vote will still be held. One can only imagine the shareholder’s frustration as this back and forth.

Aurora Could Buy Both

Now it looks as if Aurora could end up buying both properties. This is in contrast to the original plan that a Newstrike deal with CanniMed would cause the Aurora deal to terminate. If that were to happen (Aurora buying both), Aurora would have to raise its offer price as the stock values of all three parties have risen as the hostile bid drama has played out over the past few months.

CanniMed’s Toronto shares were lately trading at C$34, popping from C$20 at the end of December. Aurora’s shares lately traded at C$13, almost doubling from C$7.74 a month ago. Newstrike shares traded in the 50 cent range a month ago and closed on Friday at C$1.47.

If all three companies combined, the valuation could put it on par with Canopy Growth (WEED), currently Canada’s largest cannabis company with a market cap of C$7 billion.

 


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The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis


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