KelownaClown wrote: 1. Who owns, or is involved in, Verse Cannabis? Has anyone tried to find out? I have, and if you go to the Verse Cannabis website, there is ZERO information about the coroporate structure, whichi I find unusual. There's no head office address listed on the Verse website, nada.
Most announcements of agreements between two companies provide some background on both companies, but not the announcements concerning Valens and Verse.
Call me suspicious, but anytime I see a deliberate or unusual omission of information, I tend to ask why. Why is it difficult or impossible to find out who owns Verse? My natural assumption is because the owners of the company dont want to share that information publicly. So then you have to ask why not? Well, let's imagine that Verse is owned directly or indirectly by insiders at Valens. In that case there might be a perceived conflict of interest, and existing partners of Valens like BRNT, TREC, Rubicon, etc., might feel that Valens is in competition with their own partner network. For instance, if Verse can sell more cheaply than BRNT becuase Verse is getting better pricing... you see my point.
Take a look at the most recent announcement - there's absolutely zero information about Verse:
https://thevalenscompany.com/press-releases/the-valens-company-and-verse-cannabis-add-thc-and-cbd-drops-to-verse-originals-product-line/ Going back to the very first deal, take a look at the announcement of the very first deal between Valens and Verse, look at this BS description of Verse - "Like the verse of a song or poem...." WTF? What's all this BS? Where's the corporate information???
https://thevalenscompany.com/press-releases/the-valens-company-announces-custom-manufacturing-agreement-with-next-generation-product-innovator-verse-cannabis-to-launch-largest-ultra-premium-concentrate-offering-in-canada/
About Verse
Introducing Verse…
There is a clear need in the marketplace for Verse. On the one hand, beautifully branded and marketed flower-based brands line the shelves of cannabis stores nationwide. On the other hand, quality-obsessed craft products, fill the needs of those demanding more, but at a high price.
This is where the idea for Verse was born. An assortment of the highest quality cannabinoid-based Gen2 products accessible to all. A brand whose North Star would always be innovation and quality but values like realness and honesty would trump frills and gimmicks.
Like the verse of a song or poem, where creativity follows the rules of rhythm to become attractive to its listener, so does Verse, combining creative innovation with the rules of science to engineer extraordinary experiences for consumers.
Gag me with a spoon, dudes!
2. Why the Delay in Closing the LYF Deal?
If I had to bet on why there's been a delay in closing this deal, I'd say it's because of the plummeting value of Valens' share price. Read these details of the deal - $2.23 is a long way from Valens' closing price yesterday at $1.71, and I bet the guys at LYF are saying they want a re-calculation.
"The purchase price payable on closing is CDN$24.9 million, including the assumption of CDN$2.9 million in mortgage related debt and the issuance of up CDN$22.0 million in common shares of the Company, of which up to CDN$5.0 million is payable in cash
and the remainder payable in common shares of the Company (the “Common Shares“) (being up to 9,846,154 Common Shares issued based on Valens’ 20-day VWAP of CDN$2.23 as of January 22, 2021). CDN$2.2 million in value of Common Shares (being 984,615 Common Shares) will be placed into escrow for indemnity purposes."
3. Normal Course Issuer Bid
Remember this, from December 2019?
"Pursuant to the notice and subject to the market price of its Shares and other considerations, Valens may acquire over the next 12 months up to 6,275,204 Shares, representing 5% of the outstanding Shares, for cancellation. There are 125,504,096 Shares outstanding as of December 12, 2019. Any purchases will be made at market prices through the facilities of the TSXV. Valens believes that the purchase of its outstanding Shares may be an appropriate use of its resources over the next 12 months, based upon the market price of its Shares during such period."
So by the end of the NCIB in December 2020, how many shares had Valens bought back. I dont have the exact number in front of me, but I think it was only 40,000 shares - which is eff'n peanuts. And, if the NCIB was a good idea back when the announcement was made, when the stock was traing around $3, why wouldn't it be a genius move now, to show management's dis-pleasure with the current stock price at $1.70 ?? But like someone else pointed out, they're too busy paying fat salaries to executives. So much for share-holder value. I call BS on this one.
That's it for me this morning. I've written twice to Valens Investor Relations recently, but haven't received an answer yet. If and when I do, I'll share anything worthwhile with this board.
Have a nice day, y'all.