New investment - European medical cannabis company

RNS Number : 0664E

FastForward Innovations Limited

05 July 2021

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

FastForward Innovations Ltd / AIM: FFWD / Sector: Closed End Investments

5 July 2021
 

FastForward Innovations Ltd

 ("FastForward", "the Company" or, "FFWD")

New investment in European medical cannabis business

FastForward Innovations Ltd, the AIM quoted company focusing on making investments in fast growing and industry leading businesses, is pleased to announce that it has invested €3 million (c.£2,577,000 at today's exchange rate) in Eurox Group ("Eurox"), a German-based, European vertically integrated medical cannabis company. FFWD expects to hold 8.85% of Eurox following the issue of new shares resulting from the financing round.

Highlights :

· Investment in Eurox provides FastForward with direct exposure to a company focused on the German medical cannabis market, by far the largest in Europe.

· Eurox is well positioned in Germany and the broader European medical cannabis sector, with its main operations being in Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

· FFWD's Vice President of Investment Analysis, Alfredo Pascual, is to join the Eurox supervisory board (Aufsichtsrat) in due course.

Ed McDermott, Chief Executive Officer of FastForward, commented: "This investment is the result of many months of work, and is fully aligned with our comprehensive investment strategy in the European wellness and medical cannabis space, that includes having both liquid and non-liquid assets in our portfolio. This is a meaningful private equity deal and it represents an important addition to FastForward's portfolio of investments in Europe's growing cannabis-sector."

Alfredo Pascual, VP of Investment Analysis of FastForward, commented: "Eurox has built a strong value proposition, with the capability to develop, get manufactured and sell its own-branded, unique, 'made in Germany', EU GMP medical cannabis extracts and isolates.

"As a company built from the ground up in Europe and led by a European management team, we see immense potential in Eurox to become the next vertically integrated medical cannabis leader on the continent. We were attracted to Eurox's investment opportunity by a number of factors including the company's prudent cash burn rate to date and realistic plans. Those plans include offering unique products across all relevant medical cannabis segments: dried flower, full-spectrum extracts and isolates."

Bernhard Babel, co-Managing Director of Eurox, commented: "Our goal has always been to achieve consistently high product quality, stable supply and operational excellence to serve our wide customer base. The Eurox team and I are very much looking forward to this new partnership with FFWD which is the final in a series of fundraises giving us a solid capital base upon which to build our business.  We value FFWD as a strategic partner and are very much looking forward to working with them."

About Eurox Group

Eurox has an exclusive, long-term contract and manufacturing agreement for cannabis products with Dr. Reckeweg & Co. GmbH ("Dr Reckeweg"), a EU GMP certified German pharmaceutical company with 75+ years of experience manufacturing plant-based medicinal products.

Eurox Group has fully owned German subsidiaries responsible for product development, holding IP and commercial relationships.

Eurox has already been generating revenue to date, mainly by selling imported medical cannabis flower in Germany. FFWD expects Eurox's main competitive advantage to stem from being uniquely positioned to offer its own brand of "made in Germany" value-added products, with launch expected within the next few months. This with the aim to guarantee to medical cannabis patients in Europe the highest European pharmaceutical quality standards and reduce long-term dependency on long-distance international shipments and burdensome import-export permits.

Outside Germany, Eurox Group holds the following assets:

· A fully-owned Portuguese subsidiary with a provisional license (often called "pre-license") granted by INFARMED, the Portuguese National Authority of Medicines and Health Products. Eurox Portugal is currently building its cultivation facility to secure vertical integration and long-term supply independence.

· A significant minority ownership of Integro Medical Clinics, a London Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered medical cannabis clinic.

The new capital will be used primarily to continue with product and business development, as well as to fund the capital expenditures related with Eurox's Portuguese cultivation asset.

FFWD has invested €3 million to acquire 4962 shares in Eurox.  Eurox had net assets as at 31 December 2020 of €1.8 million (based on preliminary results) and reported a preliminary loss before tax of €0.68 million on pre-revenue activities for the year to 31 December 2020.

For more information on Eurox, visit https://www.eurox-pharma.com

Further Details

The German medical cannabis market exceeded €165 million covered by statutory health insurers in 2020[1], up 34% from the €123 million that were reimbursed in 2019[2]. In the first quarter of 2021, statutory health insurers reimbursed €44.3 million[3], which annualized would represent approximately €180 million in calendar year 2021. These numbers do not include reimbursements by private health insurers nor sales of medical cannabis paid directly out-of-pocket by patients, believed to be a meaningful, and increasingly important percentage of the total market.

***ENDS***

For further information on the Company please visit  www.fstfwd.co  or contact:

Ed McDermott / Lance de Jersey	FastForward Innovations Ltd	Email:  [e-mail]
James Biddle / Roland Cornish	Beaumont Cornish Limited, Nomad	Tel: [phone]
Isabella Pierre / Damon Heath	Shard Capital Partners LLP	Tel: [phone]
Isabel de Salis / Catherine Leftley/Charlotte Hollinshead	St Brides Partners Ltd, Financial PR	Tel: [phone]

 
Notes
FastForward Innovations is an AIM quoted investment company focused primarily on disruptive high growth life sciences and technology businesses particularly within the medical cannabis arena. The Company's strategy is to identify early stage opportunities that have an upcoming investment catalyst and grow its portfolio in terms of value whilst limiting the number of investee companies to a level where relevant time can be devoted to each.
 

 

---

[1] https://www.gkv-gamsi.de/media/dokumente/quartalsberichte/2020/q4_23/Bundesbericht_GAmSi_202012_konsolidiert_Sonderbeilage_Cannabis.pdf

[2] https://www.gkv-gamsi.de/media/dokumente/quartalsberichte/2019/q4_21/Bundesbericht_GAmSi_201912_konsolidiert_Sonderbeilage_Cannabis.pdf

[3] https://www.gkv-gamsi.de/media/dokumente/quartalsberichte/2021/q1_23/Bundesbericht_GAmSi_202103_konsolidiert_Sonderbeilage_Cannabis.pdf

 

END

 

 

MSCEALXAESNFEFA