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Neptune settles former CEO claim, announces U.S. acquisition

Quebec-based extraction firm, Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc., has paid out roughly $5.4-million worth of shares to settle a constructive dismissal lawsuit filed by its former CEO Henri Harland. Mr. Harland, who left the company in 2014, had claimed $8.5-million in compensation. A trial date was set for May or June of this year, but the case settled out of court, with Neptune issuing Mr. Harland 600,000 of its own common shares (valued around $3.2-million) and 2.1-million shares of Acasti Pharma Inc. (valued around $2.3-million), a former subsidiary of Neptune.

Mr. Harland founded Neptune in the early 1990s as a krill oil extraction company. He departed the company about a year after a massive explosion in the company’s facility near Sherbrooke, Que., which killed three people and wounded dozens. In 2017, Neptune shifted its business towards cannabis extraction.

The company also announced last week that it was acquiring a Sugarleaf Labs, hemp extraction company in North Carolina. Neptune is paying Sugarleaf’s owners US$12 million in cash and US$6 million in common shares up front. It will pay up to US$132 more, in cash and shares, over the next three years, based on Sugarleaf “achieving certain annual adjusted EBITDA and other performance targets.”

- Mark Rendell

Still no Second Cup cannabis conversions

TMore than a year after Second Cup Coffee Co. made a splash by announcing a partnership with National Access Cannabis Corp., the coffee company still has not converted any of its stores to marijuana retail. In Second Cup’s first quarter MD&A, released on Friday, the company noted that NAC had submitted five applications to the City of Calgary for Second Cup conversions. Two of these locations have been granted development permits, and Second Cup and NAC are “in the various stages of negotiations with the respective landlords and franchisees to convert to a cannabis dispensary,” Second Cup said.

Like many would-be cannabis retailers in Alberta, the Second Cup/NAC joint venture was caught by The Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission moratorium on new retail licenses, issued in November.

“The Company will continue to work with NAC and other parties towards conversion of these two cafés when the moratorium is lifted by the AGLC,” the company said.

- Mark Rendell

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