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MMJ spends a further CA$3.6M on Canada’s hemp industry

Health Care
ASX:MMJ
16 October 2019 21:30 (AEST)

Australian based MMJ Group has spent a further CA$3.6 million to invest in the Canadian hemp industry.

Announced today to shareholders in the Australian market, the company made the investment into Toronto based Embark Health. Embark was conducting a CA$10 million equity raising, making MMJ a significant investor with its cash splash.

This isn’t the company’s first investment into Embark. In early July last year, MMJ spent CA$15,000 to invest in a 2.5 per cent shareholding into the company. The company will fund today’s investment from its cash reserves of AU$12 million.

“This is another example of MMJ’s strong market and financial discipline identifying opportunities and bottlenecks in the cannabis value-chain in markets and acting quickly,” MMJ Chairman Peter Wall said.

MMJ specialises in building its portfolio from investing in companies that are part of the hemp industry’s supply chain.

After today’s investment, MMJ will now hold roughly 12 per cent of Embark’s shares. Settlement of the investment is expected to take place before the end of this month.

When the company first invested into Embark, it cited an interest in the hemp specialist’s positioning in the recreational Canadian market.

“Embark Health has executed its business plan and is well positioned to become one of the largest cannabis extraction businesses in North America within twelve months,” Peter added.

Embark Health was conducting the capital raise to help fund the completion of its extraction facilities.

“The investment demonstrates MMJ’s expertise to secure a privately negotiated investment in listed and unlisted cannabis businesses which are not generally available to Australian retail and institutional investors,” he said.

Embark currently has three facilities planned in the pipeline.

The company is already building a 40,000 square feet extraction facility in British Columbia, poised to process 5000 pounds of cannabis biomass per day and 100 kilograms of cannabidiol isolate.

A second facility is being planned for Ontario and will span an even larger 105,000 square feet. It’s expected to process 10,000 pounds of biomass per day and 200 kilograms of CBD isolate.

A third facility is planned to be operational late next year, located in Kansas. It’s expected to process 5000 pounds of biomass a day.

Shares in MMJ are trading 2.17 per cent higher today for 23.5 cents each.

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