This article first appeared on News 24 on 13 November 2023.

The five-year-old group, which will join as a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) initially, is targeting a mid to late December listing at the very latest, but is hopeful this will happen even sooner, says CEO Gabriel Theron.

Theron told News24 this week it had secured the requisite R50 million minimum funding from its backer, Malaysian-based ALPS Global Holding Berhad (ALPS) to list as a SPAC. It was also finalising all the relevant paperwork to set the ball rolling for an early to mid-December listing.

A SPAC, which is generally backed by big business names, lists on a bourse with no commercial operations and with the express purpose of raising money for potential acquisitions or takeover targets.

Theron said the plan after listing as a SPAC was for the group to acquire its first target asset, namely the business Cilo Cybin Pharmaceutical and its 2 500 m2 facility in Midrand. Following this, it would look to graduate to the JSE’s main board.

Originally the company, which is licensed to cultivate, process and sell medical cannabis products, had eyed a December 2022 listing, but was unable to reach the minimum capital requirement threshold, raising only R20 million by the date in question.

Theron said at around that time it had also been talking to ALPS, but that the Malaysian group, which now owns a 10% interest in Cilo Cybin Pharmaceutical, said while it was keen to provide the full minimum R50-million backing, it would take about six months for the transaction to pass through all its regulatory procedures.

He said it was decided then to rather postpone the listing and refund everybody who had up until that point invested in Cilo Cybin.

While it had hoped to list in September, the regulatory procedures took longer than expected, with the result that they settled on a December date for a listing.

"In terms of timeline, the bank approved the escrow agreement last week Friday so we are just waiting for final signatures. That should be concluded this week. Our backing partner ALPS’s  funding is already in place."

Theron said the group hoped to have a market capitalisation of between R150 million and R200 million after the acquisition of the Midrand facility.

He said the company had strong order books from international markets, adding it had the advantage of being licenced to both cultivate and manufacture final cannabis products.

He explained that there were over 100 licences across the country for cultivation, but only a handful for manufacturing, which would position it well for organic growth.

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