Organigram Is Now Worth $1.3-Billion And Applying To List On The NASDAQ
MONCTON – Organigram Holdings, the parent company of licensed cannabis producer Organigram, has applied to list its common shares on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, it announced Friday.
“This is the latest step in the process. Although we’ve done a lot of due diligence and we’ve got a good understanding of what that’s going to take, it’s still in progress,” said Ray Gracewood, Organigram’s Chief Commercial Officer.
The company, which currently has a market cap of$1.33-billion, still has to get the approval of the NASDAQ and satisfy all applicable listing and regulatory requirements, the timeline of which isn’t in Organigram’s control. But based on where the process is at right now, Gracewood says he’s “hopeful that within the next month or so we’ll be able to get to the next step.”
This isn’t Organigram’s first foray into the U.S. public markets. At home, the company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and in the U.S., it’s been listed on OTC Markets for years. But being on the NASDAQ would mean a step up for its current shareholders and, at the same time, make it more visible to larger investors, especially since there’s “absolutely” been increased demand from American investors, Gracewood said.
Aside from listing on the NASDAQ, Gracewood says the company continues to monitor other ways to expand into the U.S. market. Where the U.S. doesn’t have federal legalization of cannabis, the company is keeping a close eye on the emergence of multi-state operators. They’re dispensary chains that run across various states and beginning to have a national footprint.
Organigram will remain listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, but doing so provides “pretty significant hindrances” to doing more business in the U.S. Canadian cannabis companies have been lobbying the TMX, which owns the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange, to let them buy or invest in American marijuana firms. That would allow access to a much larger market.
“The reality is, being on TSXV right now dictates the amount of activity that we can have in the U.S.,” Gracewood said. “That has really held us back as well.”
At home, the company has been growing quickly. Just last October, its market cap was around $850 million, now it’s worth more than $1.3 billion. In February, it was approved to begin selling recreational cannabis in Quebec, planting its foot in all 10 Canadian provinces.
Though it reported a loss of $6.4 million in its latest quarter due to increased sales and administrative costs, its net revenue soared from $3.4 million to $26.9 million in its first full quarter of adult−use recreational sales.