Cantourage
This week Cantourage UK, a subsidiary of the German-listed cannabis distribution group, signed a supply agreement which will give residents of Gibraltar greater access to medical cannabis.
Cantourage UK, which imports medical cannabis products from Germany into the UK and Channel Islands, has reportedly reached an agreement with the government of Gibraltar ‘which will allow the prescribing of (medical cannabis) products to patients with certain conditions’.
Gibraltar, which has a population of around 32k, is a British Overseas Territory. It legalised the use of Sativex oral spray to treat Multiple Sclerosis in 2017, and published an amendment to its drugs misuse regulations enabling the supply and possession of certain cannabis based products for medicinal use 2019.
However, these regulations specify that patients cannot administer products by smoking, and access for patients is tightly restricted.
According to Gibraltar’s Minister for Public Health, the Hon Prof John Cortes, the local government had ‘been working on making these medicinal products available to patients who will benefit from them for some time’, and now that the successful completion of necessary training by GHA (Gibraltar Health Authority) doctors has been completed, the project can move ahead.
Cantourage UK’s Co-founder Joshua Cuby said he was ‘delighted to be working with the Government of Gibraltar and the GHA’, and was committed to providing patients with ‘alternative treatments to help those with chronic conditions’.
“In particular, we are eager to support patients where more traditional medication therapies have failed. We have a strong affinity to Gibraltar and look forward to applying our knowledge and experience to medical cannabis patients in Gibraltar.”
SEED Innovations
AIM-listed investment vehicle SEED Innovations has seen its stock jump by nearly 30% this week following a string of announcements regarding its investee companies.
Most recently, on September 11, SEED announced that it had divested over half of its stake in German-based cannabis extracts manufacturer Avextra, which traded as Eurox until September last year.
SEED invested €3m in Avextra in 2021, and increased its holding in April 2022 with a further €170k investment, seeing Avextra represent nearly 30% of SEED’s portfolio as of March 31, 2023.
It has now announced the sale of 2900 shares in Avextra (56.4% of its holding), for gross proceeds of €2.9 million (£2.45 million), representing a 62% return on its initial investment.
According to its update to investors, SEED ‘remains a holder of 2,242 shares in Avextra representing approximately 3% of Avextra on a fully diluted basis’, worth €2.2m.
“The opportunity arose for a partial exit of our Avextra holding and the board agreed that generating another c.£2.45 million via a premium asset sale was the right decision,” SEED’s CEO Ed McDermott said.
“As an agile fund that can adapt to the movements in the markets, SEED is looking to speed up the investment cycle and, where appropriate, seek full or partial exits within as close to a 24-month timeframe as possible.”
Days earlier, SEED reported that cannabis cultivator Northern Leaf, in which it owns a 2.2% stake, had successfully received GACP accreditation for its growing facility in Jersey.
The cultivator, which received GMP accreditation in May 2023, expects this will enable it ‘to sell into the rapidly growing Israeli medical cannabis market’, while other ‘supply agreements have been received for initial sales into Germany and Australia’
As part of the same release, SEED informed investors that UK CBD brand OTO, which acquired SEED investee South West Brands (SWB) in April this year, had completed a raise to fund working capital through to the end of 2023.
🔍 With £7.1 million in cash and receivables, SEED is well-positioned to capitalise on future investment opportunities in the health, wellness, and biotech sectors. https://t.co/kEuG8hts17#InvestmentOpportunities #SEED
— SEED Innovations Limited (@SEEDInnov) September 11, 2023
This was completed via the issue of a convertible instrument with both floor and ceiling prices for conversion at a significant discount (70% to 90%).
In light of this, SEED says that it is ‘taking a cautious and prudent valuation approach’, and is impairing the combined loan and equity position in OTO by approximately 75%’.
SEED informed investors that repayment of the £167k loan it made to SWB has commenced, and is expected to be completed in the foreseeable future, ‘albeit within a lengthened timeframe’.
According to its announcement: “As at 31 March 2023, the SWB position was valued (based on the anticipated OTO transaction) at £590K (equity £423K and loan of £167K). We currently expect that this will be reduced to circa. £146K in SEED’s interim financial statements as at 30 September 2023 (represented by £38K in equity and £108K loans).”
Ananda Developments
Aquis-listed UK cannabis firm Ananda Developments announced the issuance of 600k convertible loan notes this week.
This was split into two parts, a total cash investment of £300k raised from ‘two existing shareholders’, and a further debt capitalsation of £300k.
The debt capitalisation was part of an ongoing loan agreement with the company’s chairman Charles Morgan, who has agreed not to call any of the remaining £709k he is owed until January 31 2025.
The conversion price for the CLN’s, which have an annual interest rate of 15%, is the lower of a 20% discount to the price at which shares are issued in the next capital raising of £1m or more, or 0.4p, with a minimum conversion price of 0.2p.
Ananda’s CEO Melissa Sturgess said: “We are grateful for the support of the additional funding from existing shareholders which will allow us to progress our strategy to pursue further clinical trials into inflammatory pain conditions.
“The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report on Drugs, which was released last week, called for further government support for clinical trials into cannabinoids which aligns directly with Ananda’s strategy of providing randomised controlled trial evidence for the use of our MRX1 cannabidiol medicine in the treatment of chronic pain.”
