Celadon Pharmaceuticals
Celadon Pharmaceuticals this week released its full-year results for 2023, reporting revenues over three times those seen in 2022.
Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) traded medical cannabis company secured a further £2.1m of investment through a new share placement, marking the second multi-million-pound raise in less than a year.
For the year to December 31, 2023, Celadon reported revenues of £75k, significantly above the £24k reported in 2022 and the £8k reported in the six months to June 2023.
Operating losses grew slightly year-on-year from £5.3m to £5.9m, but losses before tax fell significantly from £18.1m to £7.5m over the same period.
Cash as of December 2023 sat at £1.3m, falling to £500k as of May 10, 2024, with £700k of VAT and R&D tax credits reportedly expected.
This drop in cash reserves is likely to have spurred Celadon’s recent fundraise, which will see a further 2m shares issued at £1.05 per share.
Its new shares are set to be admitted to AIM in four tranches, starting on May 15, and continuing on June 10, July 15 and August 12, 2024.
According to the company, the funds from the raise, alongside the potential of a £7m credit facility it announced in December 2023, will be used for ‘additional working capital’ which will ‘be sufficient for its present requirements’ for at least 12 months from the date of first admission.
As for the aforementioned credit facility, Celadon also announced that its directors have decided ‘not to pursue the CLN financing’, given that product supply to customers has now commenced.
“Following the first shipments to our UK customers in December 2023 and £3m of fundraising at the end of 2023, we have taken the opportunity to secure £2.1m of additional working capital at an attractive issue price compared to the current share price,” Celadon’s CEO James Short said.
“Raising £5.1m of equity in the current environment demonstrates the confidence investors have in Celadon’s strategy and the prospects for the developing pharmaceutical-cannabis industry.”
Hellenic Dynamics
The Greek medical cannabis cultivator also announced a new fundraise last week as it eyes new opportunities presented in Greece’s domestic market.
Hellenic announced that it has successfully raised gross proceeds of £217k via the issue of 10.9m new ordinary shares at a price of 0.2p per share.
The proceeds will reportedly go towards working capital purposes ahead of the receipt of a €1 million loan facility, which is expected in mid-June.
On April 22, Hellenic said that its subsidiary Hellenic Dynamics SA had entered into a 15-year secured loan agreement with a ‘European investment and consulting house’, which has an interest rate of 3.5%, but only for the first six months.
It says the funds will be used to ‘complete the current phase of investment at the Hellenic facility’ including an expansion of its cultivation capacity and R&D testing of strains.
Meanwhile, the company announced in a LinkedIn post this week that will now look to target the fledgling domestic medical cannabis market in Greece.
In February, Business of Cannabis reported that Greece has officially made medical cannabis available to patients for the first time, bringing a frustrating seven-year wait to an end.
As of Monday, February 19, the first medical cannabis products were made available to patients with a prescription, with the government currently sourcing products only from domestic producers.
“With a domestic-only supply market, prices for patients are approximately €16.50 per gram,” Hellenic said in its post.
“With unprecedented demand, Hellenic is looking to capitalise on this new domestic market and looks forward to supplying the many thousands of patients in Greece with a THC dominant medical cannabis products to help alleviate chronic pain conditions.”
The company announced in October 2023 that it had begun cultivation at its Greek facility, though it’s unclear when revenues can be expected this year.
Cantourage
Berlin-based Cantourage has reported nearly 70% revenue growth over 2023, but says it expects to see exponential growth this year thanks to the passage of CanG in Germany.
Compared to 2022, Cantourage reported a revenue increase of 67% to €23.6m, with growth reportedly driven by its telemedicine platform Telecan, the introduction and diversification of new products, and the ‘optimisiation of purchasing and sales activities’.
While the company still recorded an EBITDA loss of around €500k for the year, this was a significant reduction of the €2.5m recorded a year earlier, putting the company in what it describes as the ‘break even range’.
Post-period, Cantourage says sales in the first quarter of 2024 came ‘below expectations’, but still grew by 26% to €6.2m, due to ‘an uncertain legal situation’.
However, with the successful passage of the CanG bill opening the door for medical cannabis in Germany, Cantourage says it has seen growth of 160% in April 2024 year-on-year.
“Due to the changes resulting from the ‘Cannabis Act’, Cantourage assumes that significant growth in revenue can be achieved in 2024 as a whole,” Cantourage’s CEO, Philip Schetter, said.
“We expect the ‘Cannabis Act’ to provide significant impetus for medical cannabis in 2024: cannabis is no longer a narcotic – this will lead to considerable simplifications in dispensing by pharmacies and prescriptions by doctors.
“With our telemedicine platform Telecan and our diversified product portfolio ranging from a dronabinol solution to various cannabis flowers, we can respond to a wide range of market developments. Our production network of more than 60 cannabis growers worldwide enables us to bring new products to our target markets very quickly if required.”
While Cantourage cautioned that the extent of the positive impact these changes will have on its business are difficult to estimate, it anticipates a ‘sharp increase’ in prescriptions and sales will occur in the coming months and years.
Indeed, as reported by Business of Cannabis earlier this month, prescription numbers are already skyrocketing across the market.
