Cannabis capital markets in Canada are considerably more mature than in the U.S., largely because the substance is federally legal in America’s hat, while remaining federally illegal in the Land of Liberty. In this context, a marijuana company hitting a major exchange in Canada is a big deal; it’s no over-the-counter listing.
Joining the elite list of public companies this week is DOJA Cannabis Company Limited DOJA, a licensed cultivator that spent the last few months building up capacity in anticipation of a license it finally received in June. Having recently completed the acquisition of Northern Lights Marijuana and a wholly-owned subsidiary, DOJA will begin trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange Wednesday under the DOJA ticker through a reverse merger with SG Spirit Gold Inc SG.
Based off British Columbia, DOJA defines itself as a “premier cannabis lifestyle brand that will feature the highest quality handcrafted strains in Canada.” Interested in the company and its experienced management team, which boasts previous commercial hits at SAXX underwear and Kitsch wines, Benzinga reached out to CEO and funder Trent Kitsch and asked him to walk us through the upcoming listing.
“The founders put in our own money into the company for a couple of years. When we finally got our PLI Confirmation [which stipulates a governmental inspection for a potential certification], we raised C$1.8 million to buy our facility and the balance of land, and build our facility. Since that time, we did another private placement, and now have about C$4.5 million in the treasury,” Kitsch told Benzinga.
The company started growing four different strains once it got its license and expects to hit the market during the first quarter of 2018. The existing facility can generate about C$7 million [$5.55 million] in annual revenue; after Phase II of expansion, they expect to hit C$40 million [$31.7 million].
According to Kitsch, DOJA will hit the market at a valuation below the industry’s average. “There’s a lot of value there,” he said. “We are proven brand builders, we’ve done this before and know how to deliver value and liquidity to investors.
“Our experience managing Kitsch wines gives us a lot of vehicles to market and bring awareness to the company that other LPs don’t have. We are experts at non-traditional marketing,” he added.
The chief exec argues that DOJA has an advantage over other licensed producers in cannabis, which are heavily focused on medical cannabis. “We are medicinally-focused in the sense that we believe in wellness, and we believe that there is a bridge between recreational cannabis and medicinal cannabis, which is wellness,” Kitsch concluded.
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Image Credit: Javier Hasse
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