FACTORY TO EMERGE AS CANNABIS OPERATION
Last week’s weed headlines were dominated by the bill ion dollar deal between Aurora Cannabis Inc. and CanniMed Therapeutics Inc., whose management teams came together after months of bickering to lay the groundwork for marijuana’s first mega-merger. As the drama unfolded, plenty of other deals were getting done across the industry. Here’s a few you may have missed: ❚ Nesting with Nestle
On Friday, cannabis financer Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp. announced that it had entered into a financing agreement with two companies, IDP Group Inc. and HMT Solutions Inc., to create a new company CannabisCo. The group plans to turn a former Nestle Canada plant in Chesterville, Ont. into a cultivation facility.
Wheaton Income will provide $ 12 million financing to assist the first 100,000 square foot development of the facility. The company hopes that the Nestle factory will produce 7,500 kilograms of cannabis annually once the first phase of construction is complete.
Wheaton Income, which provides financing in return for a percentage of future profit, will retain “a perpetual stream of 30 per cent of all cannabis (or cannabis-derived products including any cannabis trim) produced at the Facility,” according to the company.
This isn’t the first former factory transformed into a grow- op. Canopy Growth Corp. is headquartered in a former Hershey’s chocolate factory in Smiths Falls, Ont. ❚ Going global
Cronos Group Inc. announced on Monday that its wholly- owned subsidiary Peace Naturals Project Inc. has secured a dealer’s licence from Health Canada allowing it to export medical cannabis extracts, like concentrated oil and resin, internationally.
Cronos signed a distribution deal with German pharmaceutical manufacturer Pohl- Boskamp back in October, giving it access to pharmacies across the country. The company is also building a facility in Israel.
“The international medical market is the most attractive opportunity right now,” said Cronos CEO Mike Gorenstein.
“In some countries you have strong ( medical) reimbursement systems like Germany, some markets like Israel you have a long track record of university research … ( and) a strong climate f or agricultural growing.” ❚ Other deals
Canopy Growth Corp. is expanding its Saskatchewan presence and diving into hemp production. On Thursday it finalized a previously announced acquisition of Green Hemp Industries Ltd., which focuses on “whole-plant hemp harvesting.” According to a Canopy press release: “The field operations ( of Green Hemp Industries) alone are ready to scale from 600 acres in 2018 to 2,500 acres in 2019. To support this growth, custom built extraction infrastructure will be installed at Canopy’s Tweed Grasslands facility.”
Maricann Group a nnounced a “non- binding term sheet” for a proposed acquisition of Switzerlandbased Haxxon AG on Wednesday. Haxxon operates a 60,000- square- foot facility on the outskirts of Zurich, where it cultivates female hemp cannabis flowers. The acquisition, if completed, will allow Maricann to produce cannabis in Switzerland, which could be manufactured into finished products like vaping cartridges, the company said.
On Monday, Namaste Technologies Inc.’s subsidiary Cannmart Inc. took a step towards achieving a “sales- only” licence from Health Canada, after receiving a Confirmation of Readiness certification. Once Cannmart secures the licence, the company will source medical cannabis from a variety of domestic and international producers, according to Namaste.