Cannabis company Kaya grows sales, cuts losses

KAYA GANJA stores in Jamaica, which are in the process of being taken over by a Canadian company, have reduced their annual losses by two-thirds, its newly released financial report shows.

Kaya operates four herb houses, which makes it the largest medical cannabis dispenser in Jamaica. Annual sales at Kaya and its related cannabis marketing firm NUGL totalled US$2.3 million, a five per cent improvement on year 2022.

During t he financial year ending December, the company reduced compensation, causing its net losses to shrink from US$2.6 million to US$828,000 in 2023.

Kaya Group is the only local trader of cannabis products whose accounts are public, due to its foreign listing. The legal ganja market in Jamaica has around 133 licensed operators, according to Cannabis Licensing Authority disclosures to December 2023.

The completion of the CDN$43-million (US$32 million) acquisition of NUGL/ Kaya Group by Silo Wellness of Canada is set for June 30. Kaya previously merged with US-based NUGL Inc in 2022, a transaction that resulted in Kaya founder Balram Vaswani becoming the largest shareholder in NUGL.

Silo Wellness itself also operates magic mushroom retreats in Jamaica. Its latest financials show Silo holding negative shareholder equity of US$1.7 million as at July 2023 and with low cash on its books. It implies that financing for the acquisition might have to be raised externally.

“We remain committed to combining our pioneering Jamaican psychedelics company with who we consider to be the leader of the cannabis space in the Caribbean,” said Mike Arnold, founder and CEO of Silo Wellness, in a release issued back in February.

That statement followed from the announcement that the letter of intent to acquire Kaya/NUGL had been extended to June 1.

Kaya CEO Vaswani owns 22 per cent of NUGL, an American company that was incorporated in 1998.

The two companies merged in a reverse takeover in April 2022, with Kaya being the dominant entity. It now trades under the NUGL ticker symbol.

Both Silo and NUGL trade on the over-the-counter markets, but Silo also trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Kaya was incorporated in 2015 and later became the first mover in Jamaica’s retail cannabis market, having opened its first herb house at Drax Hall, St Ann, in 2018. Kaya now operates four herb houses and five subsidiaries, namely, Jamaica Ganja Corporation Limited, The Herb Company Limited, Kaya LLC Jamaica, Island Kaya Limited and Kaya Extracts Limited.