Debra Borchardt
Safe Harbor Financial, technically known as SHF Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SHFS) has completed its special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) deal with Northern Lights Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: NLIT). Northern Lights is now officially known as SHF Holdings and the stock will continue to trade on the Nasdaq marketplace. SHFS Shares began trading at $9, down 12% as the broader market experienced selling and Norther Lights shares closed at $10.81 on Wednesday.
“Today represents a significant milestone in Safe Harbor’s journey,” said Sundie Seefried, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Safe Harbor. “We are thrilled to complete this transaction and eager to continue scaling our business and expanding our offerings to meet the needs of the cannabis industry in the United States. With the strong leadership from our executive management team, Board of Directors, and support from NLIT’s sponsor team, Safe Harbor is well-positioned to be the platform of choice for financial services providers to cannabis operators.”
The deal stumbled a bit on its way to completion, but ultimately was successful. Safe Harbor also closed on September 28, 2022 a PIPE in the amount of $20.45 million of convertible preferred stock and warrants. To offset the reduced PIPE amount, Partner Colorado Credit Union, Safe Harbor’s indirect parent, agreed to a further amendment to the Unit Purchase Agreement, dated February 11, 2022 to provide for the deferral of approximately $57 million of the $70 million due to the Seller at the closing of the business combination. The increase in the Deferred Cash Consideration will provide Safe Harbor with additional cash to support its post-closing activities.
John Darwin, Co-CEO of NLIT prior to the closing, stated, “With its established leadership position in cannabis-related compliance services and continued growth in its financial institution clients, this is an exciting time for Safe Harbor to become part of a Nasdaq-listed company.”
Safe Harbor Financial was conceived in 2015 as a solution to a major problem that plagued the nascent legalized cannabis industry in Colorado– access to reliable and compliant financial services. Safe Harbor presently processes funds from 20 different states nationally.
Safe Harbor, realizing the funds from the cannabis industry were better banked than unbanked, ventured forward to do the right thing for everyone, bank the deposits under Partner Colorado Credit Union as a DBA up until 2021. Cannabis related funds were already finding their way into the financial system one way or another via hidden, misrepresented accounts and criminal banking behaviors similar to money launderers. After great research, it was obvious that every agency wanted to have accountability and transparency from the industry, but legislation was not supportive of such.
