AUSTRALIA’S first initial public offering (IPO) in a medicinal marijuana company is three times oversubscribed, giving high hopes to its founder’s ambitions to become “the George Clooney of medicinal cannabis”.
Perth-based Phytotech, due to list on the Australian Securities Exchange on December 22, is seeking to raise A$5 million (R47m). Founder and executive director Ross Smith said investors – some from as far afield as Russia and the US – had already asked for shares worth $A15m.
“South of the equator there’s nothing available in the medicinal cannabis sphere,” Smith said. “We’re going to close it early because it’s so massively oversubscribed.”
Smith set up Phytotech in August to sell medicinal marijuana and develop a disposable device to inhale the drug. He envisions any advertising for the products to run along the lines of the ads for Nestle Nespresso coffee machines that feature Clooney.
“I’d be on the shore of Lake Como, puffing away and two beautiful women would come up and say, ‘Is that a Phytotech?’ and I’d say ‘Why, yes’,” Smith said.
According to the IPO prospectus filed with the stock market regulator, Phytotech plans to grow medicinal grade marijuana in Israel, the only country that allows exports of the drug, for sale in the US, Canada and Europe.
It is also positioning itself for possible changes in Australia. – Reuters
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