Hellenic Dynamics
Hellenic Dynamics has seen its stock drop nearly 40% this week following an announcement that it would no longer be pursuing EU GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification for its facility.
Earlier this week (June 6), the London Stock Exchange-listed cultivator, with operations in Northern Greece, announced a significant shift in strategy in a ‘business update’ to investors.
Hellenic says that it plans to ‘move with market conditions and demand’ and adapt its cultivation strategy, deciding ‘not to invest considerable funds and time into the construction and certification of an EU-GMP facility in the current phase of its development’.
This shift, which is a departure from the strategy laid out in its initial prospectus, is due to two key reasons, first and foremost the huge ‘capex, opex and time’ costs associated with achieving EU-GMP certification.
Furthermore, Hellenic says that many medical distributors in the markets it is targeting now have their own EU-GMP facilities, meaning there is ‘very little advantage for end sales price of products’ in securing their own certification.
Hellenic’s CEO Davinder Rai said: “Our approach will now involve harnessing the scale, low operating cost and expertise at our growing facility to service the burgeoning demand from end-use customers in our target markets.
“I personally believe this strategy is the most disruptive thing to happen to the industry since its legalisation.”
The cultivator also mentioned that it was now ‘currently on track to have its first cultivation underway in late summer 2023’.
This appears to be a departure from its previous timelines, having stated in January this year that it expected to ‘complete the initial fit-out and activation phase of its facility during Q1 2023, which will enable it to cultivate, harvest and supply its pre-allocated medical cannabis flowers to its off-take customers in Germany during mid-2023’.
The news has seen Hellenic lose the lion’s share of the stock price gains it had made over the past few months.
After trading at lows of between 0.8p and 1.2p since February, Hellenic saw its stock recover in dramatic fashion in late April, reaching highs of 2p in mid-May, levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of its entrance onto the LSE.
Celadon Pharmaceuticals
AIM-listed Celadon Pharmaceuticals saw its stock slip by around 10% this week, following the publication of its full-year 2022 results.
Its results came just days after the UK-based company announced a new £7m two-year committed credit facility from a ‘high net worth investor and current shareholder’.
The company said the credit facility has come at ‘such an important time in the company’s growth journey’, having recently secured its first supply contract just weeks earlier.
“The Revolving Credit Facility Agreement will be repayable in the event that the Group obtains sufficient alternative funding to allow the Revolving Credit Facility Agreement to be repaid in full,” it stated.
Days later, Celadon published its financial figures for the full year ended December 31, its first since becoming a publicly traded company in March 2022, which saw it raise £8.5m.
During the year, Celadon posted revenues of £24k, which have been solely gained from its Harley Street Limited clinical study. This was an increase on the £2k made in 2021, before Vertigrow merged with Summerway Capital to create Celadon, and comes as much of the group’s operations remained in the pre-revenue phase.
Operating costs totalled £4.9m for the period, up from £2.4m a year earlier, which Celadon says reflects the ‘scale up in the group’s people, operations and cost base’ following the enlargement of the group last year. This resulted in an operating loss of £5.4m, up from £2.7m in 2021.
It added that there was a non-cash £6.4m one-off cost relating to the reverse acquisition and IPO costs.
As of December 31, 2022, Celadon reported a cash balance of £5.1m, though its situation will have now been significantly altered following its £7m in new funding.
DeepVerge
DeepVerge’s woes continued this week after the company announced that, due to its financial position, it is being forced to downsize its key operations.
The Dublin-based biotech firm, which produces a range of CBD cosmetics and offers its proprietary Labskin technology to a number of other brands, informed investors via an RNS on June 5 that it would be ‘downsizing Labskin, Skin Trust Club and Rinocloud business units’.
These business units will be downsized ‘with effect from’ July 1, 2023, resulting in the ‘elimination of approximately 20 permanent employee contract positions’.
It said this was part of further measures to improve the financial position of the group, adding that it would likely need to delay the publication of its full-year 2022 financial figures.
According to the company, the potential delay is due to the resignation of its auditor, Jeffreys Henry LLP, in March, after it concluded it no longer had sufficient capacity to satisfy its regulatory requirements as an auditor days before an audit of DeepVerge’s accounts was due to start.
If the company is unable to publish its annual report by June 30, 2023, then its shares will be suspended from trading on the AIM market in conjunction with Rule 19.
“Any such delay would be likely to be limited to a matter of weeks.”
The news came just over a month after DeepVerge announced that its prospective revenues were now likely to be ‘approximately 45%–50% of the previous estimates’, after a review of its finances found that revenues from a number of key contracts were ‘incorrectly recognised in excess of works completed’.
