SIGNIFICANT developments from Germany this week helped add to the momentum of interest in cannabis stocks initially driven by President Joe Biden’s recent announcements.
This helped boost the stocks of German operators Cannovum and Synbiotic up by nearly 10% and 5% respectively, though the more long term impact of the announcement on market sentiment is yet to be fully understood.
Meanwhile, ongoing political chaos in the UK continued to play havoc with London-listed stocks, however the eventual resignation of Liz Truss has already seen the value of the pound increase and the FTSE 100 gain.
The turmoil has also seen the resignation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, whose controversial calls for cannabis to be upgraded to a Class A substance threatened to produce yet another barrier to the development of the cannabis industry in the UK.
Love Hemp
Following growing speculation among numerous retail investor groups this week, CBD consumer goods company Love Hemp was compelled to issue a clarification statement to the market.
Last week (October 13), an application to ‘strike off and dissolve’ a company called LH Botanicals Ltd. was published on Companies’ House, signed by Love Hemp’s CEO Tony Calamita.
Some investors mistook LH Botanicals Ltd, which was incorporated in 2020, for the group’s manufacturing, white label, private label and wholesaling brand LH Botanicals.
This led a number of investors to believe that the group’s wholesale arm was ‘finished’, and speculation to swirl about how this would impact the overall group.
The company was quick to address the misunderstanding directly to a number of concerned shareholders, before subsequently releasing a statement on October 18.
Its brief statement made it clear that LH Botanicals and LH Botanicals Ltd. were independent of one another, and that the latter was effectively a completely dormant company that was incorporated but never used.
It came just weeks after further turmoil in the company’s board room. On September 20, Love Hemp announced that it would be welcoming Robert Smyth as its new Chief Financial Officer with ‘immediate effect’, who is credited with ‘leading the floatation of KP Renewables’ onto AIM.
Non-Executive Chairman Graham Mullis said at the time that Mr Smyth brought the financial and managerial experience to ‘make a significant impact to the running and planned growth of the business’.
However, a week later, Love Hemp announced that ‘by mutual consent with Robert Smyth’, the company has agreed to his immediate resignation, and that Non-Executive Director Anthony Dyer would adopt the role of interim CFO until a ‘suitable replacement was found’.
Stenocare
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Danish medical cannabis operator Stenocare announced earlier this year that it was set to become the sole supplier of medical cannabis oil products in its home country after it received approval from The Danish Medicines Agency to sell its THC oil across Denmark as part of a pilot programme.
This week Stenocare announced that it has now received approval for a second oil product, this time a ‘CBD medical cannabis oil’, which it says will see it ‘once again’ become the only supplier of CBD and THC medical cannabis products in the country.
The news sent Stenocare’s stock jumping over 5% this week to €1.31, though this remained some way off the near €2 peak it achieved after revealing its first oil was approved.
According to the company, it expects the new product will be available for patients during Q4 this year, ‘pending international import and export certificates’.
MGC Pharmaceuticals
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MGC Pharmaceuticals saw its shares recover slightly towards the end of this week, after publishing an ‘operational update’ detailing a number of developments.
The LSE-listed company said that it flagship ArtemiC Rescue product was experiencing ‘higher than expected demand’.
This has seen its US-based distribution partner AMC Holdings, which currently has a $1m order of the product, request a fast track of delivery, seeing 50,000 units delivered in a single shipment rather than multiple so ‘that it is ready for immediate supply to the US owing to increasing demand.’
Meanwhile the company says it has completed production at its facility in Slovenia, with EU GMP re-certification to be finalised in November.
‘Recommencement of production’ has now began at the facility, which will reportedly allow the company to increase production capacity by 200%.
Elsewhere, the audit of its Maltese facility has also been completed, and reportedly met all key GMP audit criteria, meaning that full EU GMP certification is expected in early 2023.
Once this is achieved, MGC says it will have ‘two, high-quality, EU GMP certified production facilities from which it will be able to manufacture and distribute proprietary products’.
CEO Roby Zomer said it was clear that ‘demand for our products is strong, and it is important that the business is well positioned to service this demand, both in terms of our production capacity, and the progress of our products through the clinical pipeline’.
