Canntrust Holdings to Destroy $77 Million Worth of Cannabis

Canntrust Holdings (TSX: TRST) (NYSE: CTST) announced early this afternoon that it is taking steps to establish a remediation plan with Health Canada in regards to the status of its licenses. As a part of that plan, over $77 million worth of inventory and biological assets will be destroyed by the company.

In total, $12 million in biological assets and $65 million in cannabis inventory will be destroyed by the firm. With the revocation of its sales licenses, the firm is unable to process it or sell it to either provincial regulators or other producers. The product subject to destruction was grown in unauthorized space at its facilities in Pelham, Ontario, and Vaughan, Ontario.

The product to be destroyed is in line with The Deep Dive’s previous estimates on just how much cannabis may potentially have to be disposed of, when we analyzed the financial impact of Canntrust’s illegal operations.

With Health Canada placing 5,200 KG of product on hold and CannTrust placing a further 7,500 KG on voluntary hold, the base financial impact is easy to determine. Using CannTrust’s average selling price of $5.47 per gram for the first quarter of 2019, this implies $69.469 million in inventory has to be potentially destroyed by the company. The true impact figure could be higher dependent on how much of that product is in kilogram equivalent oils and other products.

The Deep Dive, “The Financial Impact of CannTrust Holdings Illegal Actions”

As of the latest financials posted by Canntrust, which is for the period ended May 31, the firm had approximately $55.8 million in cannabis-related inventory, and $21.8 million in biological assets. Those figures however have become outdated, with the issuer being behind on its financial reporting requirements as a result of the ongoing investigation.

Canntrust indicated in today’s news release that the product is being destroyed as a means of freeing up space at its facilities. The destruction of the product will allow Canntrust space to store legal product that is coming due for harvest as well as legal product that was grown after the date of final licensing in April.

Canntrust Holdings is expected to deliver a complete remediation plan to Health Canada by October 21, 2019. The equity is currently trading at $1.12 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 23.11%.

Information for this briefing was found via Sedar and CannTrust Holdings. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.