Australis Capital Archives - Green Market Report

Australis says it will begin harvesting in October in New York.

Long after the market closed on Tuesday, Australis Capital Inc. also knowns as Audacious (CSE: AUSA) (OTC: AUSAF)  announced that it had filed its financials and management discussion and analysis for the three-month period ending December 31, 2021, its fiscal third quarter of fiscal 2022 (the year ending March 31, 2022). Audacious reported that it had total revenues of $2.37 million, an increase of 2,623% year-over-year from $90,378 in the third fiscal quarter of 2021 and even grew 4% sequentially.

The net losses were trimmed to $4.7 million in the quarter versus last year’s $19.2 million for the same time period. A 16% reduction in operating loss was recorded $(4.3) million as compared to $(5.1) million for the prior year, with growth in margins offsetting increased operating costs.

“The third quarter saw us expand internationally through our partnership with Green Triangle Health (“GTH”), where we have already started generating revenues,” said CEO Terry Booth. “Our partner is exceptionally well-connected, which is translating into commercial arrangements with major regional and international distributors. In the U.S., we continue to make good headway too, with an important partnership with First Americans of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which sees us move into New York well ahead of statewide commencement of adult-use sales, providing us with a significant early mover advantage. Our partnership with PBR has seen us launch our Wreck Relief brand, which is now starting to generate online sales, and our Provisions and LOOS brands continue to do very well in California, in part through our partnership with EAZE, the world’s largest legal cannabis delivery company.”

During the quarter under review, the company said it recorded its first billings in California, offset by lower kiosk income as the Cocoon business is wound down. Furthermore, as the company exits its investment in Body and Mind, no further consulting fees were generated from this relationship.

Jon Paul, CFO of AUDACIOUS, added, “The third quarter was an important pivot for us, as we spent heavily towards future growth opportunities while moving further from our past. We successfully launched the AUDACIOUS brand at our highly trafficked booth at MJBizCon and the Roll-Up Launch Event featuring Machine Gun Kelly. We had our first sales in California while also investing heavily in key raw materials to expand our capacity for future quarters. We began funding our relationship with PBR and built inventory in Wreck Relief for the Q4 release. Even with loss of revenue from past fintech and consulting lines, we still grew sales over Q2 and have multiple opportunities for even faster sales growth in the quarters ahead.”

Looking Ahead

Audacious said that in the coming months it will continue to execute on its strategy with further growth in its current markets and anticipates entering new jurisdictions, including New York, New Jersey, and others, as well as further expansion of its product line portfolio. “Additionally, the company will be pursuing multiple initiatives to increase production volume, further driving growth. The company is following rigorous financial discipline and anticipates reducing certain operating expenses in the coming months. Additionally, following conversations with the regulators in Nevada, the company is confident the license transfers relating to the GT acquisition will be completed shortly, following which the Company can consolidate the GT results, further boosting growth.”

This interview was conducted with Terry Booth, CEO of Audacious in October and has been edited for clarity.

Terry Booth is one of the OG’s of legal cannabis as a founder of Aurora Cannabis in 2006. His next chapter begins at Audacious Brands, which was renamed from Australis. However, his initial entry into the company wasn’t a smooth one. Green Market Report had a chance to sit down with Mr. Booth and discuss his plans for Audacious.

Green Market Report Executive Editor Debra Borchardt: The last two years at Australis Capital or Audacious (CSE: AUSA) (OTC: AUSAF) have been a little rocky with the dissident battle.

Terry Booth:                       I didn’t join the dissident battle right away. In fact, I was offered a position there as a chief strategy officer. I said no. When I joined the dissident battle, it was game on. We beat him handily. 60 million votes to 10, or shares, rather. And back in August, when we knew we were going to win, we started plotting and pivoting us back to the cannabis space where it was meant to be. We want to excite, ignite and delight the shareholders. So we want their chins held high. That’s what we’re doing. I joined in March as CEO.

Green Market Report:                                    Or rejoined.

Terry Booth:                       Sort of rejoin. You’re right. I was originally the CEO of the company. And we got rid of the board, got rid of the management team, brought in new blood onto the board, a lot of smart people. Leah Bailey, Jon Paul, both Harvard educated. Cannabis business people. Jon’s the CFO. Leah is our Chief Business Development Officer and then Dr. Duke Fu, who is the COO. He came onto our board through an acquisition. He was actually interim CEO while I was negotiating for my position as CEO.

So those four people got to work including me and we’re executing our deals. We were in one state then, and now we’re in five. We’re working in many. The east coast is important to us with New Jersey and New York and Pennsylvania. If you think about that, that’s 80 million people. Super excited about this US endeavor. It’s a lot different than Canada. We call it 50 different countries here. You have got to know your way around the regulatory landscape. That’s my background. So I’m pretty confident in it and even at Aurora, we knew a lot about what was happening in America because they had backing rights into Australis if it ever becomes legalized.

So that’s a story of how it was founded and here we are. Now we’re in Nevada, California, Missouri, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Washington – and that’s just with cannabis. We’ve also got Thomas Larssen ALPS projects who not only built greenhouses for weed but also builds greenhouses for sustainable vegetables.

Green Market Report:                           Would you say there’s a specific brand identity for the brands that you have. You’ve got Provisions…

Terry Booth:                       This company really is a brand play. It’s a brand company. We’re not going to have a big CapEx model. We’re not going to build massive facilities anymore for ourselves, but we’re building for others, and we’ll negotiate to get some of that canopy for ourselves and get our own cultivars into those facilities and our own brands. The way you do that is sort of tricky because we’re piggybacking on top of other people’s licenses. So we’re actually skipping the licensing process. If legal says that we’re allowed to do what we do, so far so good. In Nevada, California, and Massachusetts, it’s exactly what we’re doing. We also fix facilities. We went into Arizona, a massive one, I don’t want name the name, they’re in trouble. They were having systemic problems with their growth, and we’ve been in there for months now and it’s really turned around. We’re just getting our crop consultants in, engineering and design, nutrient delivery systems…

Green Market Report:                           Walk me through that. In that example, there’s someone that’s struggling and you guys go in. Fix and then produce your brands from that location?

Terry Booth:                       If they choose to. It’s the second step in the process. So Thomas Larssen, he’s the president of ALPS, Aurora Larssen Projects is where that name was born. He’s been in the grow industry for over 30 years. Took over from his father in the Netherlands and in Denmark. So he knows what he is doing with respect to growing. He’s hired a team of engineers and crop consultants and cannabis people that can go into facilities and say, “Hey, this is not good. Right? You need more lighting here, your nutrient delivery system shouldn’t be top-fed it should be table fed. You’re wasting space there, but those lights are wrong. Your environmental conditions are wrong. Your humidity’s too high, or it’s too low.” All those types of things end up with what? Good cannabis and higher yields, higher THC content, if that’s what you so choose.

So we have a deal with a company in Colorado called Three Rivers, and they do plant tissue culture and micropropagation. So we can move clean genetics state to state without it being illegal. If they’re in… It’s called agar, like a Petri dish of goo. That makes plants… and we offer that service to our people that we’re building for. So we’re not just an engineering firm that comes in and says, this is what you got to build. It’s right from the seed to when it’s shipped and packaged. We’re not the sale, ALPS isn’t, but we do have that at AUDACIOUS with Green Therapeutics. And the brands you were asking about, we have five now very strong brands, I believe.

We are now licensed in Cali with the deal we did with Herb and Eaze.  A lot of the money that we’re raising right now is going to getting products and getting those things going. But again, we’re not going to build these massive structures unless it’s for somebody else and we’ll get a canopy in those structures.

Our first entry into the CBD space is with the Professional Bull Riders Association and it’s the first major sports organization that has signed a CBD deal. I don’t think we were close when I was with Aurora. These sports franchises are going to come on board, but the PBR is cool. Right now, it’s just a topical, and eventually, we’ll get into the edibles of CBD. And as you know, in America, they did an amazing thing by taking that off of the controlled drugs and substances risk, CBD.

Green Market Report:                           Then you guys just recently bought the beverage company LOOS.

Terry Booth:                       LOOS, yeah. That’s the only way I think you should be selling beverages with cannabis because it’s expensive when you put it in 10-ounce cans and you have to keep it refrigerated, and you have all the-

Green Market Report:                           I’ve heard about the interior of the can, the metal that you have to worry about coating.

Terry Booth:                       Yeah. That happened to one of the bigger companies where the THC wore away the metal. In Canada, we’d only be able to put a 10 mg in that shot. In California we can put a 100 mg in it. So it’s a powerful shot. So the LOOS deal. Young guys, smart. Anthony and Ben and their sales team. They were as much hired for getting that product on the shelves, as it were for building our sales force in Cali. Important. Then we did the Herb deal and that’s a San Jose dispensary. But the cool thing about the Herb deal was it included Eaze, and Eaze is the largest delivery company in Cali and the best.

They connected through Herb through an investment so they could do Northern California delivery. So the pieces of the puzzle are all falling into place in Cali. It’s the state you can’t not be in, but it is hard to navigate profitability. So you need to be in all the verticals and need to know what the hell you’re doing.

We’re in M&A mode. And JV mode, we want to make sure that we’re 51%, at least. We’re doing deals with social equity groups. That’s what we did in Massachusetts. So we’re okay at taking 49% on that. A good example of that is these guys from Belle Fleur and Rapper Weed, amazing guys. They originally approached us for cash, because they thought we’re still a capital company. And we said, “Nah, we don’t do that anymore. But what are you up to?” Well, we have the social equity license. They have the largest that you can get in Massachusetts. So 110,000 square feet of canopy, which it includes for retail. It includes manufacturing. And their social equity licenses in mass also include delivery where no one else can get delivery except for SEs.

So they phoned us and, no we don’t give it cash, but what are you up to? Well, we’re building a facility. These guys used to manage a million square feet under in Cali and they… No we don’t need any help. But for two and a half hours of speaking with Thomas Larssen and, and Joel Fuzat, I was on the call for about an hour, they were convinced. They need us. They want us. So we signed a contract and we’re now building that facility. Shovels were in the ground two months ago. So that’s exciting in Massachusetts. Our diversity and inclusion program that AUDACIOUS have, I think it’s better than anybody else’s, not to be a little bit audacious, but we have an independent committee advising management. An independent board, rather. Various cultures and LBGTQ people, people color, and whatnot. And they’re making a difference with not only advising what management should be doing, but looking at the states where things are not being done like they should be done on social equity.

Green Market Report:            It’s all talk and not a lot of substance.

Terry Booth:                       That’s not what this is about. On the social equity side of things, you need to educate. So we’re working with colleges, we’re working with SUNY, we’re working with the university in Canada to put together the courses that will let social equity and people be educated so they can own their own damn businesses.

That should be the goal. Right. So anyway, that’s a big part of what we’re up to. We’ve got lobbies hired in New York and New Jersey. If you think about New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, adult usage, that’s huge.  So the opportunity on the build side is very large with ALPS and the opportunity on the license side is getting better and better. That’s cool. So it’s fun. I love the business of cannabis. I love business period.

Australis Capital Inc. (CSE: AUSA) (OTC: AUSAF) also known as Audacious, has delivered its financials and management discussion and analysis for its fiscal second quarter of fiscal 2022 (the year ending March 31, 2022), the period ending September 30, 2021. Australis reported total revenues increased 2,068% year over year to $2.3 million and increased 31% from $1.73 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2021.

The company reported a net loss of $(4.32) million, or $(0.02) per share, compared to a net loss of $(5.82) million, or $(0.03) per share, in the second quarter of 2021, and a net loss of $(9.67) million, or $(0.04) per share in the first quarter of 2022. The prior year’s net loss was higher due to settlement costs and the net loss for the first fiscal quarter of 2022 was higher due to a decline in investment values.

“On a pro forma basis, we continue to record stellar growth with revenues increasing 2,700% year-over-year, and further strengthened our gross margins through the successful integration of our ALPS subsidiary,” said CEO Terry Booth. “Our financial results are a direct result of the strength of our unique and differentiated business model, which centers on partnering with leading cannabis brands and building our portfolio of integrated cannabis operations to strategically expand our US and global footprint. Our ability to form synergies across cannabis operations under the leadership of an experience C-suite, supported by a team of seasoned cannabis and CPG executives, crop consultants, engineers and genetics experts, continues to drive our success and we are well-positioned to explore opportunities that will further our position as a leading multi-state operator. We remain focused on our capital-light business model and following a proven path to success by scaling our operations and streamlining costs while entering new high-growth cannabis markets.”

Looking Ahead

The company said its working capital as of September 30, 2021, was $7.40 million as compared to $16.42 million as of March 31, 2021. Australis believes it will have sufficient cash and resources to fund its business objectives for the next twelve months.

Australis also said that it expects to have continued strong growth and is forecasting third-quarter revenues north of $3 million. “In the months ahead, AUDACIOUS will continue to execute on its strategy with further growth in its current markets and anticipates entering into new jurisdictions, including New York State, New Jersey, and others, as well as further expansion of its product line portfolio. Additionally, the company will be pursuing multiple initiatives to increase production volume, further driving growth.”

Australis Capital Inc. (CSE: AUSA) (OTC: AUSAF) announced that it is changing its name to Audacious Brands.  The company’s ticker symbol will remain AUSA on the CSE and AUSAF on the OTC. The company said it will consolidate its brands under the new Audacious banner and intends to launch additional product lines under the new name.

“Audacious as a name for our adult-use operations is a much better reflection of our corporate culture and how we execute and operate,” said Terry Booth, CEO. “Audacious stands for doing things differently, courageously breaking with tradition, being bold, brave and confident. As a Company, we are executing on a unique strategy that is very difficult to emulate, while at the same time de-risking our operations. In an increasingly fragmented market with largely converging strategies, it takes an audacious company to stand out. This is who we are, and this is how we operate. The new name also better reflects our motto to ignite, delight and excite our shareholder base and the customers enjoying our products.”

Audacious was originally founded by Steve Dobler and Terry Booth, the founders of Aurora Cannabis. After the completion of a dissident shareholder battle that ended with convincing shareholder approval, Terry Booth, former Aurora CEO, who had to step away from AUSA upon spin off, re-joined AUSA as CEO on March 9, 2021.

Missouri

Audacious also announced that it has received its license to operate as part of its  Green Therapeutics acquisition. The company said that once the license transfer is complete, Audacious will own 25% of a processing and manufacturing license.

The Missouri operations consist of an 8,000 square foot facility for extraction and manufacturing, including a complete solventless extraction line, with an initial capacity to extract approximately 100 lbs per day of raw material. The facility will allow for the expansion of the Tsunami brand to penetrate the Missouri market. A final inspection was successfully completed, and the Missouri operation has received its license to operate. Sales are anticipated to commence within the next 45 days.

The Missouri market is anticipated to reach $225–$300 million by 2021 and is anticipated to show continued strong growth to $500–$625 million by 2025 (Marijuana Business Factbook 2021). To date, 25 manufacturing licenses have been approved to operate. Further licensing is currently capped.

Nevada

Audacious also noted that it has completed the acquisition of a 23-acre plot of land in Nevada, which it plans to become a hub for multiple operators covering the industry value chain from cultivation to extraction and manufacturing. In addition, it has acquired the last remaining water rights in this area, providing a substantial advantage in securing partners for the development of this project.

“The Sandy Valley land has great potential for us to develop our multi-operator cannabis hub. In line with our capital light expansion strategy, we intend for ALPS to assist third party operators, be they cultivators, processors or manufacturers, in building their facilities, in exchange for a percentage of capacity to grow our own cultivars and manufacture our products,” said Booth. “While through Green Therapeutics we already are a leading operator in the state, growth has been limited through lack of high-quality cannabis. This initiative, in addition to our other moves in the state, as announced recently, will change that. We are already in talks with a number of highly interested parties to realize our vision, on which we will report more in the coming months.”

Looking Ahead

The company outlined its pipeline with transactions close to the agreement stage including a facility and supply partnership in Massachusetts, a retail facility in an underserved market in California, as well as an edibles company in California. In addition to these developments, the company continues to advance on other opportunities in jurisdictions in the Eastern U.S. and other regions. Audacious said it plans to maintain strict discipline as to M&A, in line with previously communicated criteria, such as accretive transactions and disruption. Management anticipates making further announcements on transactions and partnerships in the weeks and months to come.