GREEK medical cannabis company Hellenic Dynamics is set to list on the London Stock Exchange as investment appetite for the sector continues to accelerate.
An entry on to the LSE will see it become the fourth cannabis company this year and this quartet may well be joined by many others before the year’s out.
City AM reports that Hellenic will enter the market with a valuation of around £50m and named its incoming chairman a Sir Anthony Joliffe, a former Lord Mayor of London.
Founded in 2018, Hellenic Dynamics is a fully licensed cultivator and supplier of pharmaceutical standard medical cannabis products with its cultivation taking place in a former 200,000sq ft military bunker in Northern Greece.
It has a base in the UK and its advisors include well-known UK medical cannabis figures Prof Mike Barnes and Hannah Deacon of Maple Tree Consultants and lawyers Hill Dickinson.
Speaking to City AM Hellenic Dynamics vice president and CEO Davinder Rai said: “As soon as Kanabo listed in London we were getting phone calls from our lawyers saying, ‘look, London is open, London is going to be the place that a number of cannabis companies will end up listing, and you’d be in very good company if you listed in London’.
“I’m hopeful we become the first European cultivator to get onto that exchange.”
Reverse Takeover
Hellenic will list on the main market of the London Stock Exchange via reverse takeover into a shell company.
The company grows and exports THC-dominant dried cannabis flowers to markets such as Germany, which is Europe’s leading medical cannabis market.
Like many cannabis entrepreneurs Mr Rai said he first became involved in the industry when his father, a kidney transplant patient, used cannabis to mange his pain.
In September, last year the Financial Conduct Authority announced it was easing restrictions on cannabis companies floating on the London Stock Exchange.
This has led to three flotations so far this year with MGC Pharmaceuticals making history by being the first on to the LSE followed by Kanabo and Cellular Goods – with all three seeing their stock prices rise sharply
Other companies in the frame for the LSE are innovative biotech firm Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, Jersey medical cannabis cultivator Northern Leaf and UK CBD firm Cannaray.
The Alphagreen Group is also said to be considering the LSE or Nasdaq in Sweden and other companies in the frame include leading global data and canna-tech firm Prohibition Holdings and patient-facing medical cannabis business The Lyphe Group.
The Greek Government permitted the use of medical cannabis in 2018 and encourages the development of home-grown industry through a cultivation licensing regime.
