Cannabis and Hemp Industry Investment News

PhytoTech Medical (ASX:PYL) has been granted a trading halt by the ASX pending an update on the company’s merger with MMJ Bioscience Inc, and a capital raising.

In March this year PhytoTech entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of the issued capital of MMJ Bioscience Inc., a Canadian-based multinational vertically integrated medical cannabis company.

Shareholder approval was received on 29 June 2015.

The halt will remain in place until the opening of trade on Tuesday 28th July 2015, or earlier if an announcement is made to the market.

Medical cannabis company PhytoTech Medical Limited (ASX:PYL) is advancing towards clinical studies for its unique oral capsules to treat pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients.

The poor water solubility of THC and CBD compounds has always been an issue and this trial will seek to increase the oral bioavailability through use of capsules.

The company has submitted key documents to the Institutional Review Board and National Clinical Trial Committee in Israel to start Phase 1 clinical studies with its tetrahyrocannabidiol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) oral capsules.

Submission of Clinical Study Protocol and Investigative Brochure is a key milestone indicating its advanced development stage and readiness to start studies.

The Phase 1 study will be a single-centre, randomised, crossover study to compare the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers of the two new oral THC and CBD formulations, when administered as single doses.

PhytoTech Medical's (ASX:PYL) shares are in pre-open following the ASX granting the company a trading halt.

Phytotech requested the halt pending an update on the company’s proposed merger with MMJ Bioscience Inc.

The halt will remain in place until the opening of trade on Thursday 9th April 2015, or earlier if an announcement is made to the market.

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX emerging companies with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.

() has this morning revealed a share purchase plan (SPP) to raise up to $5 million through the issue of shares priced at 11 cents.

Eligible shareholders on the register as of yesterday (5:00pm AWST Thursday 13 February) will be able to subscribe for up to $30,000 worth of new shares.

The funds raised will be primarily applied towards investment in existing and new cannabis and hemp businesses, operating expenses and general working capital.

Notably, the SPP offer price of 11 cents represents a 51% discount to MMJ’s net tangible asset (NTA) value per share post-tax as at 31 January 2020.

() (OTCMKTS:MMJJF) is making inroads as it seeks to capitalise on considerable interest in the emerging global cannabis industry through strategic investments.

As such, it is the only ASX-listed investment company offering Australian investors the opportunity to invest in unlisted and listed cannabis-related businesses locally and offshore.

In the last 12 months MMJ has converted from a cannabis operational company into a listed investment company.

READ: MMJ Group focuses on shareholder returns with venture capital approach to global cannabis sector

In this short timeframe it has accumulated a pool of around 16,000 investors and shareholders funds of about A$90 million with most investments being offshore and predominantly in Canada.

() has developed a portfolio of minority investments in the global cannabis industry, posting strong net returns of 44% for the financial year to April 30, as well as 32% for the quarter and 7% for the month.

Aiming to capitalise on the emerging industry through investments in cannabis-related sectors, the company has made 15 primary acquisitions and 8 sales of investments to date.

A strong cash position of $26 million will continue to provide capital for MMJ to exclusively invest in the burgeoning industry.

The company has also taken advantage of recent improvements in Canadian-listed cannabis markets to further boost its cash reserves, cancelling an equity raising announced in February.

() has invested C$2.5 million for a 7.3% shareholding in Volero Brands Inc, a private company based in Canada which owns and manufactures the Flyte brand of vape pens and cartridges.

Volero is building a state-of-the-art extraction and production facility that will produce vaporisers, concentrates and topical solutions.

The facility is expected to be completed in Q3 2019 and will be designed to generate a revenue of more than C$100 million per annum.

MMJ Group Holdings Ltd () (OTCMKTS:MMJJF) securities have gained 5.25% on highlighting it is carrying $25 million cash and plans to close the gap between its asset value and market capitalisation with a performance driven-approach investors hope will help build portfolio and shareholder value.

The cannabis investment company has started a campaign to present its investment case to shareholders, with chief financial officer Jim Hallam detailing the company’s investments in a finance interview earlier this week.

MMJ shared a summary of Hallam’s comments with the market yesterday in an investment update after the CFO profiled both the company’s investments and upcoming investment management approach in the interview on Monday.

Share price trades at a discount to net asset value

MMJ’s cash holdings of about $25 million compare favourably to its market capitalisation which was 4.55% or about $2 million higher overnight at $52.93 million.

The group’s net asset value is about $92 million, putting last night’s market cap at about 57% of net asset value.

Cannabis company MMJ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:MMJ, OTCMKTS:MMJJF) said Tuesday that it completed the sale of PhytoTech Therapeutics Ltd to (CVE:HVT, OTCMKTS:HRVOF) for C$8 million in cash and stock.

Under the deal, Vancouver-based Harvest One paid C$1 million in cash and issued 8,326,695 ordinary shares to Sydney-based MMJ.

READ: Valens GroWorks signs cannabis supply deal with Harvest One Cannabis

The number of shares, according to MMJ was calculated based on the 10-day volume weighted average price as of October 11, which was C$0.84067.

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd received C$20,000 in cash and 166,534 of the shares. MMJ retained the balance of C$980,000 in cash and 8,160,161 shares.

() has an active strategy in the medicinal cannabis sector which chief executive officer Jason Conroy will outline at the Proactive CEO Sessions in Sydney on Monday, October 22.

The company recently confirmed the disposal of subsidiary PhytoTech Therapeutics Ltd (PTL) to (), which led to suspension from the ASX.

READ: MMJ PhytoTech applies for ASX re-quotation, Canadian cannabis investment enters distribution agreement

A re-quotation application has been made, which also incorporates a change of name to MMJ Group Holdings Limited.

This week the company has confirmed that its investment Inc (TSX-V:LABS) entered into a cannabis concentrate program agreement with ().

() has confirmed its investment  Inc (TSX-V:LABS) has entered into a cannabis concentrate program agreement with ().

MMJ’s investment in MediPharm amounts to CAD$5 million, comprising 5.88 million shares at 85 Canadian cents per share and 2.94 million warrants exercisable at CAD$1.20 a share by October 2020.

The company has also confirmed it has made the relevant re-quotation application to the ASX after its shareholders confirmed the disposal of MMJ subsidiary PhytoTech Therapeutics Ltd on October 5 and MMJ went into suspension.

MMJ Phyto Tech Ltd () chief executive officer Jason Conroy speaks to Proactive Investors about the cannabis investment company’s global portfolio of assets and strategic approach to the cannabis sector.

“We invest up to about $5 million per investment across the cannabis value chain and across different stages of investment, either early-stage venture capital, seed capital, through to growth funding and pre-IPO funding.

“I’ve been with the company for about 6 months now and my vision for the company is really just to turn it into the of cannabis.

“Our model is built around backing very experienced management teams who understand the space but also understand old-fashioned things like operating cash-flow and how to calculate risk-adjusted returns and manage their business in an appropriate way.”

Ltd () has invested C$5 million for a 6.9% basic shareholding in MediPharm Labs Inc, which owns Canada’s largest medical cannabis oil production facility.

MMJ is a global cannabis investment company with a diversified portfolio of cannabis sector investments.

READ: invests into global cannabis lifestyle brand

It has made a number of recent investments with Ontario-based MediPharm Labs representing the ninth.

As well as the production facility supporting 100,000 kilograms of annual dry cannabis processing, MediPharm owns a majority share in MediPharm Labs Australia.

Ltd () has invested C$0.7 million for a 12.7% shareholding in Bien Ventures Ltd, a private Canadian intellectual property, branding and licensing company.

MMJ is a global cannabis investment company with a diversified portfolio of cannabis sector investments.

Bien is MMJ’s seventh investment.

Powders that can be added to food or drink

Bien is focused on exploiting the intellectual property (IP) for its formulation and brand of soluble, odourless and flavourless micro-dosed CBD and THC powders.

Limited () is expected to benefit from the New South Wales government’s new plan to simplify access to medicinal cannabis for doctors and patients in the state.

Instead of both the Commonwealth and NSW Health overseeing the approvals, the state will now rely on a single clinical assessment by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

This key change will eliminate duplication from the current approval process and substantially shorten the time between application and approval for doctors in NSW to prescribe medicinal cannabis to their patients.

Significantly, this is an important proposed change for MMJ’s largest investment, Harvest One Cannabis Inc (CVE:HVT), which currently supplies CBD (cannabidiol) capsules to approved patients in Australia.

() is actively assessing a number of Australian-based strategic investment opportunities in the medicinal cannabis sector, aimed at leveraging the company’s cannabis expertise.

The company’s shares are trading circa 9% higher intra-day at $0.58 after the health minister Greg Hunt outlined the government’s plan to allow the export of medicinal cannabis products from Australia.

MMJ through its 59%-ownership in Harvest One Cannabis Inc (CVE:HVST), has already commenced the supply of its Satipharm CBD (cannabidiol) capsules to approved patients in Australia.

Currently selling cannabidiol capsules globally

Satipharm CBD capsules are manufactured by Satipharm AG (wholly-owned by Harvest One) and are currently sold throughout key regulated cannabis markets globally.