International Cannabis Corp. has expanded into Portugal by snapping up hemp producer Enigma Unipessoal Lda in a deal worth $12 million.
ICC is acquiring 100% of the firm and issuing 18 million shares worth $0.66 apiece to complete the purchase. It already has operations in Colombia, Denmark, Poland, Greece, South Africa and Lesotho, licences to cultivate, produce, distribute, store and export cannabis, cannabis derivatives and industrial hemp, and its global expansion drive shows no signs of slowing down.
Enigma owns 400 acres of fertile land in the Castelo Branco region, which benefits from more than 250 days of sunshine per year and is said to be ideal for hemp cultivation. It has one of Portugal’s first hemp licenses and it is expected to yield 45,000 kilos of extracted, pure CBD per year, which ICC will turn into a range of products for the global market. The range will include CBD-infused chocolate, CBD oils and CBD-based topical creams.
ICC hopes the deal to acquire Enigma will go through in the first quarter of 2019. “The company considers the addition of this hemp licence as the first step towards developing a material cultivation presence in Portugal,” said ICC chief executive Eugene Beukman.
ICC has planted several flags in the European Union of late and just last month it bought Polish hemp producer Polannabis Holdings, which controls an 850-acre hemp plot on prime soil. Just like Enigma, Polannabis already has a skilled workforce and extraction methodologies in place, along with supply contracts in the local market.
Poland and Greece now serve as ICC’s two main hubs in the EU, but Portugal is set to play a more important role going forward. The firm has an exclusive agreement with pharmaceutical distributor Cosmos to supply 35,000 pharmacies across Europe.
The firm is evaluating potential assets in a number of high-growth jurisdictions in countries as diverse as Uruguay, Malta, Costa Rica, Seychelles, and Switzerland. The Vancouver-based firm has also just cleared a cannabis inspection by Colombian authorities after acquiring 32 acres of agricultural land in Funza, which lies just to the west of Bogota.
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