ECS Botanics Holdings Ltd. (ASX:ECS) has seen their share price skyrocket, after announcing plans to acquire medical cannabis company Murray Meds.
Murray Meds is a privately held medical cannabis cultivator operating in North Western Victoria. The company currently works out of a facility near the Murray River, where they focus on a sustainable approach to growing cannabis.
Murray Meds grows and processes cannabis onsite, producing tinctures, oils, and dried cannabis flower that is sold nationally and internationally. The company is one of Australia’s largest medical cannabis cultivators, producing 350 kilograms of cannabis flower in the last season. Another crop is currently in the ground with harvest scheduled for April.
Although this is only the company’s second crop, they are licensed to cultivate and produce 3,500 kilograms of dried cannabis.
ECS Botanics’s acquisition announcement was made on Tuesday this week, causing the companies share price to skyrocket to $0.053 within hours. The company has a license to grow cannabis in Queensland and holds licenses to supply, manufacture and cultivate industrial hemp in Tasmania. ECS also has partnerships with Tasmania Botanics, Medipharm Labs, and TAP Agrico.
ECS Botanics’s decision to acquire Murray Meds is strategic in nature, as the company expects to earn “more substantial revenue” from the arrangement. Murray Meds is well-positioned within Australia’s cannabis market as it was granted a Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification last year and follows certain Organic Certification Standards.
The acquisition will see Murray Meds founder and managing director Nan-Marie Schorie (a former chemist) join the ECS Botanics board. She was quoted in an ASX-release as saying:
The opportunities that this deal creates for Murray Meds, its customers and employees is tremendously exciting.
ECS Botanics is also planning to expand into producing cannabis resin, after purchasing the necessary equipment in December.
