Ananda Developments Plc - £300,000 raised for medicinal cannabis growing strategy

Ananda Developments Plc - £300,000 raised for medicinal cannabis growing strategy

PR Newswire

London, February 15

15 February 2021

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC
("Ananda" or the "Company")

£300,000 raised for medicinal cannabis growing strategy

£300,000 capital raising provides funds for Phase One of medicinal cannabis growing

· £300,000 raised from two investors

· The proceeds of the subscription will fund construction of Phase One of the growing facility in Lincolnshire, subject to the UK Home Office issuing a licence to grow medicinal cannabis for research

· Ananda's joint venture partner, JEPCO, will manage the growing of medicinal cannabis under the same protocols it did for GW Pharmaceuticals from 2014 - 2017

· It is intended that Phase One research growing will progress to commercial growing over time and subject to Home Office approval

The Directors of Ananda are pleased to announce that the Company has raised £300,000 by way of a subscription for 120,000,000 ordinary shares of 0.2p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 0.25p per share. The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Subscription to construct Phase One of the medicinal cannabis growing research facility in Lincolnshire, subject to the Home Office issuing a licence to grow medicinal cannabis for research. These funds secure Ananda's ability to complete this process, which has been subject to detailed costing by external consultants.

A virtual fly through of the proposed Phase One facility can be found at https://anandadevelopments.com/tiamat-agriculture-ltd/.

The application to grow medicinal cannabis was submitted to the Home Office in October 2019, in anticipation of the development of the UK sector, via joint venture company DJT Plants Ltd ("DJT Plants"). DJT Plants is owned 50% by Ananda and 50% by JEPCO Marketing Ltd ("JEPCO"). JEPCO grew medicinal cannabis successfully for GW Pharmaceuticals from 2014 - 2017.

The Home Office has advised DJT Plants that its application has progressed successfully through internal Home Office checks and that at this point no objections have been raised. The Home Office has also advised DJT Plants that a site visit and meeting with DJT Plants' personnel is necessary prior to licence issuance. However, due to the COVID-19 situation the Home Office is currently unable to make such a visit. It has undertaken to conduct its visit as soon as its travel restrictions allow.

The Phase One Lincolnshire facility will be used to genetically stabilise and analyse up to 65 strains of cannabis and will be comprised of:

o a 2,000 sq m greenhouse to grow out chosen strains of medicinal cannabis to maturity

o a modular breeding facility to be located within an existing farm structure

o a secure, monitored perimeter structure.

If DJT Plants receives its licence and establishes its large-scale research growing project, it will seek to expand the licence to grow medicinal cannabis for commercial purposes over time, on an area of 40 hectares identified and earmarked by JEPCO.

Subscription

The Company has raised £300,000 through a subscription for 120,000,000 Ordinary Shares at a price of 0.25p per share. The subscribers have also been issued with warrants to subscribe for an additional 60,000,000 Ordinary Shares at any time prior to 28 February 2023 at a price of 0.8p per share, a 220% premium to the subscription price. The subscribers include Smaller Company Capital Limited. Smaller Company Capital Limited is based in London and specialises in the small cap space and special situations.

Application will be made for the Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on the Access Segment of the AQSE Growth Market and admission is expected to become effective on 22 February 2021.

Total Voting Rights

In accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, Ananda announces that, following the issue of Ordinary Shares referred to above, the Company now has 584,138,886 Ordinary Shares in issue, each share carrying the right to one vote.

This figure of 584,138,886 Ordinary Shares may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Ananda CEO, Melissa Sturgess said "We are excited about this development in Ananda's ambitions to provide high quality, cost effective, UK grown medicinal cannabis to patients here and abroad. The UK medicinal cannabis market is growing at around 20% a month and has grown to around 3,000 patients in the last 12 months. These funds will allow us to build Phase One of our medicinal cannabis facility if we get a green light from the Home Office."

-Ends-

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC Chief Executive Officer Melissa Sturgess Investor Relations Jeremy Sturgess-Smith	[phone] [e-mail]
PETERHOUSE CAPITAL LIMITED Corporate Finance Mark Anwyl Allie Feuerlein Corporate Broking Lucy Williams Duncan Vasey	[phone]

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.