Debra Borchardt
The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TSX: TGOD) (US: TGODF) is looking for a new source of funding to complete construction at its Ancaster, Ontario facility. The company had planned on using a traditional commercial bank facility but said that as market conditions have changed, the terms were no longer acceptable.
TGOD has no debt and $56.7 million in cash available in Canada, which includes $40.2 million in restricted cash allocated to capital expenditures. If the company doesn’t get sufficient financing on reasonable terms within the required timeframe, it said it may have to revise the construction schedule for Ancaster and its Valleyfield project. TGOD also warned that this financing review may not result in an acceptable solution.
The stock was lately trading at C$1.73, down from its 52-week high of $6.61. Capital 10X (TGOD is a consulting client) recently initiated coverage on organic cannabis and forecast a rise in value for the stock by 377%. The analyst wrote, “Ultimately, we think TGOD is the best positioned of the organic growers. When we looked at the organic landscape, TGOD has the lowest operational risk, along with big potential upside. TGOD has a longer track record of execution (construction, branding, and cultivation) than any of its publicly traded peers, decreasing the risk they fail to grow at scale. TGOD also is aiming for true scale, with ambitions to not only be the largest organic grower but one of the largest growers period.”
Construction Update
“We are doing something no other producer has done before, growing premium certified organic cannabis at scale. By leveraging our proprietary growing methods, purpose-built facilities and industry-leading horticultural team, we are creating a wide economic moat within the premium organic segment,” commented Brian Athaide, CEO of TGOD. “We are extremely proud to showcase the hard work that went into designing and building these state-of-the-art facilities as well as our cannabis 2.0 portfolio.”
The company said that construction at Ancaster is largely complete with all grow rooms licensed by Health Canada and approximately 6 weeks left before substantial completion of the processing facility. In a statement, the company said, “The evidence package for this final component is expected to be submitted to Health Canada by the end of November for licensing. The company will prioritize any financing secured to accelerate commercial production in order to ramp-up revenues. TGOD already has supply agreements in place with Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and plans to distribute nationally as production increases in 2020. Portfolio development is underway for Cannabis 2.0 with first phase of product launches scheduled for December 2019, including organic teas and infusers.”
The company took analysts for a tour at the Hamilton and Valleyfield facilities a few weeks ago. Valleyfield’s first phase on track to be completed in Q4 with the first harvest in early 2020, taking annual production capacity for the site to 65,000 kg. The Hamilton hybrid greenhouse now completed; all rooms licensed by Health Canada, bringing total annual production capacity for the site to 17,500 kg.
One comment
Jack Stermer
October 11, 2019 at 4:44 pm
Come on. Where’s the investigate journalism? If you’re going to write story about TGOD’s financing status (set back, dilemma, crisis or hiccup), then please explain the problem in specifics and not simply quote a PR release that says nothing of substance. If TGOD has no debt and $C40M in restricted cash (allocated for capital ex), then why can’t it get financing? What issues do the lenders see that could be restricting reasonable financing terms? And importantly, what impact on future revenue projections will this financing issue cause?