The week in marijuana deals: Fantino’s Aleafia on TSX-V and Delta 9 looks to Europe
The short week saw a steady decline in cannabis stocks, including a dramatic sector-wide drop on Wednesday, followed by a bounce on Thursday. It’s the second week in row that’s seen far more red than green, with many stocks returning to levels seen before the small runup in early March. Despite pessimism in the market, companies were chugging along making deals. Here are a few you may have missed.
Cops and cannabis
Aleafia Health Inc. started trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on Wednesday after merging with cannabis clinic chain Canabo Medical Inc.
The company — run by executive chairman Julian Fantino, former Toronto police chief and Conservative federal minister, and CEO Raf Souccar, ex-RCMP deputy commissioner — owns a small ACMPR-licensed facility in southern Ontario. Canabo brings the newly merged company a chain of 23 clinics and partner clinics across the country, along with a reported database of 30,000 patients.
The company, however, has come under criticism over the past six months, given that Fantino was a strong opponent of cannabis legalization while in politics.
German and Spanish dreams
Manitoba’s Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. is hoping to go international, announcing Tuesday that it had signed a non-binding agreement with a joint venture between Germany-based CanPharma GMBH and Spain-based Kalapa S.L. to ship product to Europe.
Under the agreement, Delta 9 would supply a minimum of 40 kilograms a month, “and an additional amount of cannabis extracts,” to CanPharma. The agreement is clearly preliminary, however, as CanPharma is still trying to acquire a German import licence, and Delta 9’s facilities would need to be GMP-certified before exporting to Germany.
On Wednesday, Canadian-listed, Uruguay-centered ICC Labs Inc. also announced a deal with Kalapa, signing a term sheet to acquire 25 per cent of the company “to be paid with a combination of cash, pure CBD (the non-psychoactive cannabinoid) produced by ICC Labs, and common shares of ICC Lab.” ICC can choose to acquire the remaining 75 per cent of the company before the end of 2018.
According to ICC, Kalapa owns a CBD product manufacturer and a medical consultancy, along with interests in the Netherlands and Germany.
Other deals
Emblem Corp. became the fifth company to sign a supply agreement for an undisclosed amount of cannabis with Shoppers Drug Mart. The pharmacy chain, which has applied for a sales licence under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations, has already inked deals with Aphria, MedReleaf, Tilray and Aurora. It won’t be able to sell medical cannabis online until it secures a licence, and it’s unclear whether pharmacies will ever be able to sell cannabis in store.
Liberty Health Sciences Inc., a Canadian-listed company that focuses on U.S. operations, agreed to buy a 75 per cent stake in Massachusetts-based William Noyes Webster Foundation for US$16 million. The foundation has an “integrated medical cannabis licence” from the state of Massachusetts and is building a 36,000-square-foot cultivation facility and a dispensary.
“This acquisition affords Liberty the opportunity to tap into the growing Massachusetts medical cannabis marketplace, which currently has only 17 licensees (and only 22 dispensaries) serving 47,424 patients and a total population of nearly seven million people,” Liberty Health said in a press release.