Yooma Wellness
Yooma Wellness this week announced that it had sold its last remaining revenue-generating asset as it warned that should it be unable to ‘secure additional sources of liquidity’, it could be forced into liquidation.
The embattled CBD wellness company, which owns a string of brands, also cautioned investors that it no longer expected to be able to complete the steps necessary to lift the cease trade order on its shares ‘on a timely basis or at all’.
In an update to investors, Yooma said that it had now completed the sale of Birmingham-based Vitality CBD to Canadian biotech firm Psilobrain Therapeutics.
As part of its initial buy-and-build strategy, Yooma purchased Vitality for £10.2m in 2021, with the CBD brand reportedly bringing in ‘gross turnover’ of £1.6m over the six months prior to its acquisition.
Yooma has now sold Vitality to Psilobrain for US$2m (£1.65m), with the company’s most recently available financial accounts showing it had net liabilities of £1.5m as of the end of December 2022.
According to Companies House, last month £1.7m of amounts included within creditors was converted to equity, reducing the liabilities the company has to pay at the date of signing the accounts.
This amount is understood to have been ‘a loan due from Yooma Europe Limited’ and was ‘converted to 10,987 ordinary £1 shares for a value of £159.66 per share’.
Crucially, Yooma says that disposal of Vitality means that it ‘no longer had any material operating business lines or revenue-generating assets’, following the disposal of numerous other brands over the past year.
While it will ‘continue to consider all available alternatives’, it said there can be no guarantee it will be successful in addressing its liquidity constraints, and there will be no alternative than to ‘pursue a liquidation, winding-up, or insolvency proceeding’ if it cannot secure additional sources of liquidity.
Furthermore, following the suspension of its shares on the Aquis Stock Exchange and Canadian Securities Exchange in May, the company says it ‘no longer expects that it will be able to complete the steps necessary to lift the cease trade order on a timely basis or at all, and notes that it may be subject to delisting from or other remedies by one or both of the exchanges’.
Celadon Pharmaceuticals
The AIM-listed medical cannabis company published its interim results for the six months to June 30 this week, revealing a fall in revenues, but a significant reduction in losses.
Celadon, which is not yet generating revenues from its core cultivation operation, reported £8K of revenues from the clinical trial it is running in conjunction with LVL Clinics, down from £11k in the previous period.
Meanwhile, its gross losses more than doubled from £12k to £26k year-on-year, which the company attributed to ‘lower patient numbers’ and a ‘mix of paying and non-paying patients’ in its study. Pre-tax losses, however, were reduced from £13.5m to £4.4m year-on-year.
Looking ahead, Celadon cited the two commercial supply contracts it has signed with ‘leading pharmaceutical companies’ this year, expected to be worth £4.2m over the coming three years.
The first shipments of both contracts are now expected to be made before the end of the year, while the company says it is currently in discussions to convert ‘multiple expressions of interest’ into commercial contracts.
Celadon’s CEO James Short commented: “The period has been one of strong operational and strategic progress against the ambitious targets we set out at the beginning of 2022 and ahead of the Company’s admission to AIM.
“While the UK market for cannabis-based medicinal products is early in its development, we are increasingly optimistic around the medium- to long-term sector outlook and the prospects for Celadon within this market.”
Hellenic Dynamics
Hellenic Dynamics, the first cannabis cultivator to launch on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), announced this week that its ‘first cultivation is scheduled to occur on or before 10 October 2023’.
Following its admission to the LSE in December 2022, the company began work on its Greek cultivation facility, and has completed the ‘demolition, construction and outfitting’ of the facility over the last nine months.
Now, Hellenic says that the construction and outfitting of its cultivation facility has been ‘effectively completed’.
Having completed work on its facility, Hellenic says it will progress to its phase two development, giving it access to 40,000 sq. m of cultivation capacity, enabling it to produce 54,000kg of product per annum.
Furthermore, the near completion of phase one has allowed Hellenic to advance commercial agreements.
This includes a collaboration agreement with Elgo Dimitra, with which it signed a memorandum of understanding in March, which will see Hellenic begin cultivating under Elgo’s licence.
Elgo Dimitra is a Greek public research institute and is overseen by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Hellenic has also reportedly entered into an exclusive agreement with Nine Lions Bioscience, a Canada-based cannabis genetics breeder.
This will see Hellenic import and cultivate a selection of high-THC medical cannabis for ‘onward commercial cultivation’ to meet the needs of the company’s European customers.
