Here's a response from IR.
Hello,
Over the past few months, I think you’ll agree the cannabis sector has experienced a significant downturn from a value perspective. Unfortunately, as you’ve pointed out, VIVO has not been immune to these market forces. Our share price has declined considerably, something that has not been lost on our investors, management, or Board.
That said, we believe companies with a clear purpose, strong underlying business fundamentals, and a disciplined focus on strategic priorities will be the ones that experience profitable growth in the long-term.
VIVO has built a solid foundation of quality products, top talent, a healthy balance sheet and highly scalable capabilities. VIVO received two of the first 15 licences from Health Canada in 2014 and have leveraged that experience and lessons toward a multi-faceted, global business with a great foundation and significant upside potential.
We have a number of positive investment catalysts that we are on track to achieve in the near- term, one of which, our partnership with Linneo in Europe, has already been achieved. The rest are as follows:
Our Vanluven facility is nearing EU-GMP certification, which is the global gold standard in the cannabis industry and speaks to our commitment to maintaining a quality first culture for our facilities and products;
We have partnered with a company called ChocolaTas to produce premium cannabis chocolates at the Canna Farms facility and we expect to have product available as soon as practical following the opening of the edibles market;
We increased our internal cultivation capacity to 12,000 kilograms, following the recent Health Canada approvals and expect to have extraction capacity of approximately 50,000 kilograms of dry flower input by early 2020;
We have begun planting at the Kimmetts facility and are on track to capture our first harvest in the fourth quarter of 2019; and finally,
We are targeting approval to sell VIVO product in Germany by early 2020, subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. We received our pharmaceutical wholesale license from the regulatory authorities of the state of Brandenburg, Germany and expect our narcotic and import license approvals in early 2020, which will facilitate imports of VIVO products to the European medical market from other countries, including from Canada.
With regards to the selling you’ve mentioned, I believe you are referring to Daniel LaFlamme. Mr. Laflamme has entered into an automatic securities disposition plan (the "Plan"), filed on SEDAR. The Company understands that a sizeable amount of Mr. Laflamme’s personal net worth is represented by his shares in the Company and appreciates his desire to liquidate a small portion of his equity position while minimizing any potential negative impact in the Company’s share price.
Canadian securities laws and the Company’s Insider Trading Policy place significant restrictions on when insiders of the Company can buy and sell shares. The Plan will permit Mr. Laflamme to have shares sold on his behalf by an independent securities broker on an automatic basis, regardless of any material undisclosed information he might receive in the future.
Under the Plan, up to 100,000 shares per week (up to 5.2 million total over the 12-month term of the Plan), can be sold, representing less than 2% of the Company’s currently issued and outstanding shares. Sales will only be executed if the amount to be sold represents less than 30% of the previous day trading volume.
Mr. Laflamme will not exercise any discretion or influence over how sales of the Shares governed by the disposition plan will occur. Mr. Laflamme will still be permitted to purchase or dispose of Shares outside of the Plan, subject to compliance with the Company’s Insider Trading Policy and applicable securities laws. The Plan became effective on September 1, 2019.
Daniel Weinerman
