Synbiotic
German cannabis group SynBiotic has capitalised on the recent explosion in medical cannabis patients since the country’s landmark CanG came into effect last month.
This week, SynBiotic announced the acquisition of German importer and wholesaler, Weeco Pharma, marking its second acquisition in less than a month and its third since the start of the year.
According to the company, Weeco is forecast to achieve sales of €5m this year, bringing expected sales for the wider group to €20m.
“With Weeco Pharma, our group of companies now has a high-quality full range of cannabis flowers,” SynBiotic’s Managing Director Daniel Kruse said.
“Together with our other subsidiaries MH medical hemp and SynBiotic Distribution, we are able to offer the MedCan full range of flowers as well as extracts and dronabinol, especially in the area of alternative dosage forms. This will significantly strengthen our market position in the medical cannabis segment.”
While Weeco is based in Germany, it operates in the USA, Switzerland, Denmark and Greece, and has previously signed supply deals with Danish medical cannabis operator DanCann Pharma and New Zealand’s Cannasouth, alongside ‘some of the world’s leading EU GMP manufacturers’.
The deal will see SynBiotic acquire all shares in Weeco, taking on loan claims amounting to around €2.1m.
SynBiotic reportedly plans to increase its share capital by €1,224,501 through a capital increase, with only Weeco Pharma shareholders eligible to subscribe to the new shares. The value of the Weeco shares and loan claims is €12,245,010.
It comes just over a month after Germany’s CanG bill, which removed cannabis from the list of narcotic substances, was enacted, driving a boom in private medical cannabis prescriptions expected to be in the hundreds of thousands.
In late April, SynBiotic, now the largest cannabis group in Germany, added Croatian cannabinoid extracts and isolates manufacturer Ilesol Pharmaceuticals to its roster, providing an ‘independent production facility for refining extracts and manufacturing isolates’ for the first time.
Ilesol has its own 3,400sq m production facility in Varaždin, Croatia, and specialises in producing CBD, cosmetic products and dietary supplements.
This facility will enable SynBiotic to ‘produce CBD isolates with the made in EU label’ and distribute them through its already established supply chains.
Clever Leaves, Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies
Two major listed cannabis companies have announced plans to depart from the public markets amid continued downward pressure on share prices and an ongoing lack of liquidity.
Clever Leaves, which produces EU GMP-certified cannabinoid APIs in Columbia and, until January 2023, had medical cannabis operations in Portugal, announced its plans to delist from the NASDAQ exchange last month.
Following an ‘evaluation of internal and external options’, the company said it would voluntarily delist its common shares from the stock exchange, ‘each exercisable for 1/30th common share at an exercise price of $11.50, by May 16th.
It cited the ‘previous and likely future’ non-compliance with listing requirements alongside the required personnel resources and high costs relating to the rigorous reporting requirements for a listed company.
Cannabis companies’ exodus from public markets, following a flurry of IPO’s four years ago, appears to be a growing trend as poor stock performance, lack of institutional investment, and risk-averse market change the equation for many.
Yesterday, London Stock Exchange-listed Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCT), one of the first companies to list on the exchange, also announced plans to voluntarily delist its shares.
Business of Cannabis will be reporting on OCT’s decision in more depth in the coming days.
Just last week, Aquis-listed cannabis company Apollon Formularies announced its intention to cease public trading, following in the footsteps of its Aquis-listed stablemate Goodbody Health in June 2022.
NASDAQ ‘warms’ to cannabis stocks
While the LSE is becoming increasingly hostile for both cannabis and small-cap stocks, the US-based NASDAQ could soon become the new home for cannabis IPOs.
According to MarketWatch, Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett believes the exchange is ‘warming up to the idea’ of allowing cannabis companies to list their shares.
Currently, with cannabis remaining prohibited at federal level, US-based cannabis companies are prevented from listing on both the NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchanges.
This means leading US companies like Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, Truelieve Cannabis Corp and Verano Holdings are currently forced to list and trade on Canadian exchanges, where cannabis has been federally legal since 2018.
However, a number of foreign cannabis companies, including numerous major players from Canada, have been allowed to list, a trend that could soon ramp up.
Bennett reportedly suggested last week that US-based Curaleaf could soon be listed after it allowed Canadian companies Canopy Growth and SNDL to continue trading on the exchange despite pending deals to purchase US assets.
“SNDL is satisfied that the SunStream USA Group structure conforms to applicable laws and is not aware of any reason that would cause SNDL to not be compliant with NASDAQ listing rules,” the company said.
Curaleaf’s Boris Jordan is also reported to have suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that his company had been contacted by a ‘major US exchange’.
