Greenfern Industries Ltd. an entrepreneurial company that operates in the medicinal cannabis, hemp and hemp food space
has gained approval from the NZX to have its shares quoted on the NZX main board.
Greenfern Industries’ shares will be listed from 11am on Thursday, 21st October.
The Taranaki-based company was founded in 2018. Greenfern will be the third listed company in the province.
Dan Casey, the company’s managing director, said this was another major step forward for Greenfern Industries.
“Together with our team of staff and advisors we have been working towards this goal for the past 12 months. It’s an
incredibly exciting day for us,” Casey said.
“We are really pleased that we have been able to attract significant capital as well as appoint a very strong board of
directors to complement the business assets and the plans that we have.
“We expect that by being listed on NZX it will enable us to attract new capital when required so we can explore growth
opportunities such as further developing products and establishing additional commercial relationships here in New
Zealand and Australia, and with overseas wholesale markets.”
Greenfern will have 84,300,384 shares on issue at 25c per share and is expected to have an implied market capitalisation
of just over $21m on listing.
Greenfern has grown through two crowdfunding rounds that raised more than $4.8million. The company raised an additional
$2.155m from wholesale investors earlier this year and now has over 1980 shareholders.
Ultimately Greenfern plans to be a leading New Zealand producer and wholesale distributor of medicinal cannabis and hemp
products aimed at the medical market, as well as hemp-based health and body care products, and hemp-based foods. And at
the heart of its operation is its unwavering commitment to true sustainability.
In May, Greenfern was named New Zealand’s first Toitū carbonzero certified cannabis and industrial hemp organisation.
“The medicinal cannabis industry has quite a large environmental and carbon footprint due to high energy inputs. We want
to be a world-leading example of sustainability in the industry and to help set the standard for environmentally
friendly cannabis and hemp production,” Casey said.
In December 2020 Greenfern purchased the hydroelectric power station on the Waingongoro River that runs alongside their
Taranaki research facility, indoor growing operation and processing facility.
“The highest overhead in growing medicinal cannabis indoors is the cost of lighting and environmental control. Greenfern
has a significant benefit in having access to power at cost rather than wholesale or retail,” Casey said.
“This is a game changer for us in either allowing us to produce at a lower cost or create a larger margin on sale price.
And we’re able to grow out plants in a more environmentally friendly way – that’s really important to us.”
Greenfern has introduced a number of sustainability measures including the way in which it processes its hemp as
efficiently as possible. Their hemp seed is processed and sold for use as a high protein meat substitute while
by-products from the seed processing are also used in other products such as their hemp-based body care range – MaTo,
and hemp-based beer – CannaBeer.
The company is also setting up a high-tech aeroponic grow room at its Taranaki headquarters which is intended to use
less water, fewer nutrients and less electricity compared to conventional hydroponic cannabis grow rooms.
As part of Greenfern’s plans to list on the share market, a team of experience and skilled directors have been
appointed. The board is chaired by Brent King, an experienced public company director who has extensive knowledge of
capital markets. He is the managing director of General Capital Ltd.
Other Greenfern directors include Philip Brown who has grown and sold multiple successful businesses and has been
involved at both an investment and board level in tech start-ups, property development, and governance; Simon McArley –
former head of regulation at the NZX and former acting director at the Serious Fraud Office; Kirsten Taylor – founder of
SleepDrops International, the top selling sleep category brand in NZ pharmacies and health stores; Melbourne-based
Darryl Davies, co-founder of Cannvalate, a leading patient acquisition and medicinal cannabis prescriber; and Marvin Yee
– an Auckland-based investment banking expert with extensive experience in the capital raising industry in New Zealand,
Australian, South -East Asian and US markets.
“There are significant opportunities in this sector, and we are working hard to take advantage of them because if
companies in New Zealand do not take these opportunities we will simply become importers like we are in many other
industries,” Casey said.
A copy of the company’s NZX listing profile is available on Greenfern’s website gfi.nz