Weed week: wtf happened with MMJ?
Health & Biotech
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It was a classic WTF moment, but MMJ’s accidental appearance on the ASX yesterday irritated investors — the company wasn’t supposed to restart trading after its six-week holiday until today.
The ASX error at least flagged what is likely to happen to the stock (ASX:MMJ) today: it plunged 30 per cent in the few hours.
Further afield, US border guards have detained 13 Canadian cannabis investors on their way to a conference in Las Vegas, according to Canadian news site Financial Post.
One of those people has allegedly been issued with a lifetime entry ban into the US.
That’s cause for concern.
A rising number of Australian pot stocks and corporate advisors are doing business in the US now, from Elixinol Global (ASX:EXL) to local advisories Hunter Capital and Peak Asset Management.
The majority of ASX pot stocks looking at playing in the US market are biotechs developing registered drugs such as Medlab Clinical (ASX:MDC) or device makers such as Rhinomed (ASX:RNO).
Nov Dagan from Peak says it’s definitely a problem for Australians in the cannabis industry who are looking to travel to the USA.
“The way we see it is that until it’s legal on a federal level, there is a risk that Australians could get banned for 5-20 years,” he told Stockhead.
“In Canada, we know of a number of firms that have altered travel arrangements to cope with these risks.”
New Cannabis Ventures says in late 2017 the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) changed the rules to stop any TSX-listed ventures from participating — at all — in the US cannabis industry.
Lawyers for those companies have, of course, worked out ways around those rules. CannTrust, for example, gave up for $US1 any royalties it would have earned in the US but has the right to buy them back — for $US1 — if cannabis is legalised federally there.
The problem is that the NASDAQ and the NYSE are doing everything they can to entice Canada’s pot stocks to head south and take up residence in New York. Cronos, Tilray, Aphria, Aurora Cannabis and Canopy Growth are already there.
New Cannabis Ventures has picked Elixinol, whose main business is as an Oregon cannabis purveyor, as one of the likeliest candidates for a US listing once hemp is legalised in the US.
It’s trading on an over-the-counter (OTC) early stage venture market in the US, a platform that allows people to directly buy and sell stock from one another without using an exchange as an intermediary, as are Zelda (ASX:ZLD) and AusCann (ASX:AC8).
‘Straya
It looks like the Office of Drug Control’s (ODC) constipation has cleared up, because after months of silence, pot stocks are beginning to get their licences.
Althea (ASX:AGH) and Bod Australia (ASX:BDA) scored export licences in the last two weeks.
Thirteen pot stocks now have access to growing, research and manufacturing licences.
Adding to the ASX’s list of miners-cum-pot players is gold explorer Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE), which after months of work has decided to diversify into — not lithium or any of the other hot metals — but hemp.
Cannindah looked at infant formula at the peak of the craze in 2017, but decided against it.
Queensland Bauxite (ASX:QBL) has issued its fourth supplementary prospectus, extending the date when it expects to re-emerge as ‘Cann Global’ to December 7.
The company needs Federal Court approval for an unknown number of shares issued over six years.
The Corporations Act allows small scale shares to be issued without disclosure, such as through a prospectus, but if the person who receives the shares wants to sell within 12 months a disclosure must be made.
The December 7 date for the company’s emergence on the ASX may be somewhat optimistic. As Stockhead has pointed out, this kind of kerfuffle can often take much, much longer than just a couple of weeks to sort out: iCandy Interactive (ASX:ICI) was suspended from early January to the middle of April this year as it waited for a court order cleansing shares sold from a single placement in October 2017.
Bod got a new institutional investor — Melbourne-based SG Hiscock — which bought 5.26 per cent of the company.
Cann Group (ASX:CAN) chairman Allan McCallum told investors the timeline for their new Melbourne airport facility has blown out by six months as they’ve expanded the scale of the whole thing and made it a bit more high tech.
“With a capacity of up to 50,000 kgs, this new facility will generate revenues of between $160 and $200 million given the current wholesale price of cannabis dry flower,” he said at the AGM.
CEO Peter Crock said stage one should be ready by the end of next year, when first cultivation can start.
AusCann (ASX:AC8) is all set to start making its pot pain pills in Australia.
And a Canadian subsidiary of THC Global (ASX:THC) is doing due diligence on buying marijuana grower Vertical Canna.
| Code | Company | Price Nov 21 | 2 week change | 6 month change | Market cap ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZLD | ZELDA THERAPEUTICS | $0.05 | -0.16 | -0.53 | 40M |
| YPB | YPB GROUP | $0.02 | -0.06 | -0.27 | 14M |
| TPE | TPI ENTERPRISES | $1.25 | -0.09 | -0.1 | 104M |
| SCU | STEMCELL UNITED | $0.02 | 0 | 0 | 11M |
| RGI | ROTO-GRO INTERNATIONAL | $0.43 | -0.08 | 0.24 | 45M |
| ROO | ROOTS SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE | $0.20 | 0 | -0.46 | 14M |
| RNO | RHINOMED | $0.21 | -0.16 | 0.83 | 30M |
| QBL | QUEENSLAND BAUXITE (suspended) | $0.00 | 0 | -0.24 | 56M |
| MMJ | MMJ GROUP (suspended) | $0.00 | 0 | -0.06 | 75M |
| MXC | MGC PHARMACEUTICALS | $0.04 | -0.2 | -0.41 | 51M |
| MDC | MEDLAB CLINICAL | $0.38 | 0.07 | -0.3 | 82M |
| LSH | LIFESPOT HEALTH | $0.09 | 0.1 | -0.37 | 7M |
| ITD | ITL HEALTH GROUP | $0.15 | -0.06 | -0.4 | 13M |
| IHL | IMPRESSION HEALTHCARE | $0.02 | -0.17 | -0.09 | 8M |
| THC | THC GLOBAL | $0.51 | -0.02 | -0.17 | 67M |
| EVE | EVE INVESTMENTS | $0.01 | 0.14 | -0.2 | 16M |
| ESE | ESENSE-LAB | $0.04 | -0.18 | -0.58 | 5M |
| EXL | ELIXINOL GLOBAL | $1.95 | 0.07 | 0.19 | 253M |
| CPH | CRESO PHARMA | $0.41 | 0.01 | -0.4 | 50M |
| CHP | CHAPMANS | $0.01 | -0.4 | -0.88 | 1.6M |
| CP22 | CANNPAL ANIMAL THERAPEUTICS | $0.13 | -0.21 | -0.41 | 13M |
| CAE | CANNINDAH RESOURCES | $0.02 | -0.41 | -0.47 | 3.6M |
| CAN | CANN GROUP | $2.42 | 0 | -0.33 | 360M |
| BOT | BOTANIX PHARMACEUTICALS | $0.08 | -0.04 | -0.38 | 59M |
| BDA | BOD AUSTRALIA | $0.54 | -0.07 | 0.21 | 38M |
| AC34 | AUSCANN GROUP HOLDINGS | $0.69 | 0.07 | -0.5 | 234M |
| AGH | ALTHEA GROUP HOLDINGS (listed Sept 2018) | $0.34 | -0.12 | - | 74M |
| AEB | AFFINITY ENERGY AND HEALTH | $0.01 | -0.07 | -0.52 | 12M |
