Friends at HIKU... saying hi from the WMD end.
Decided to drop a line when people are saying HIKU overpaid. I'd beg to differ in fact I think HIKU got the better end of the deal. Let's also be honest here, you don't get to work at Google even as an EA unless you are the top. By top I mean actual top. Only the best of the best get to work at Google let alone run Asia. These guys are all ex-investment banking, consulting, or some sort of Front Office finance experience and I can bet you that there is no way Alan would accept an inferior deal.
This is such a great HARMONY and a equal merger because of several reasons. By merging with WMD, HIKU instantly gets exposed to the valuable relationships / contracts already secured and continuing to ramp up on the WMD side. We are now BOTH vertically integrated companies from production to sale. There are many risks / expertise required to run a successful build-out, expansion, and greenhouse - look at ABcann, all they can do is pour money. They have not delivered on their expansion promises and it looks like it won't be until 2019. They've spent over $30mm to generate a revenue that has decreased since their last earnings. Planning and strategy is key followed by execution. Without one or the other, you won't have results. This is why WMD is desirable because they can clearly execute. They said they will build X by Y and have Z harvested and they are doing just that - according to their latest financials, the harvest and completion is exactly on time. On top of this, their revenue, cash burn rates, capitalization, and management strategy is close to perfection. How many companies threw out "international expansion" as a pumping point? ABcann? Australia? Germany? I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a company that underpromises but consistently overdelivers than one that throws out keywords to lure investors to buy then have the founder run right after.
This deal was perfectly structured to portray the MERGER. No one paid more or less, they both needed each other to grow to new heights.