Some high profile marijuana companies in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows are being sold in a $41.5 million deal.
Ascent Industries Corp. announced on March 26 the company and its subsidiary companies – Agrima Botanicals, Bloom Holdings, Bloom Meadows, Pinecone Products, and Agrima Scientific – will be sold to BZAM Management Inc.
The aggregate value of the transaction is $41.5 million, with the sale to be completed by April 3, said a company press release.
BZAM has agreed to assume certain liabilities of Ascent, including an obligation to purchase a greenhouse in Pitt Meadows, said a release posted by both companies online.
The 600,000-sq.-ft. greenhouse was to be converted from producing vegetables to growing marijuana.
Ascent operates Agrima Labs on Airport Way in Pitt Meadows. Formerly known as Pinecone Products, it produces capsules and tinctures.
Agrima was established in 2013, had a research agreement with SFU’s biology department, and at that time had received more than $450,000 in government grants for cannabis research.
It listed more than 75 employees in Maple Ridge in 2017, and was to have another 40 in Pitt Meadows at Pinecone Products.
In Canada, Ascent, through its Agrima subsidiary, obtained licences to cultivate cannabis and produce extracts.
In addition, the company is a licensed dealer with the ability to produce, package, sell, send, transport and distribute medically focused cannabis products in Canada to other licensed entities, and internationally in jurisdictions where medical cannabis is legal.
Ascent had its licences suspended by Health Canada in 2018, and had been working to satisfy the regulator and restore its revenue source.
On Feb. 7, the company announced Health Canada was still considering revoking the company’s licence.
“The agency reiterated its concerns that unauthorized activities with cannabis took place after the Canadian producer’s licence and dealer’s licence were granted to Agrima, in contravention of the ACMPR and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act [now regulated under the Cannabis Act],” said a company press release.
Ascent was given creditor protection earlier this month for its Canadian companies under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. The announced sale was approved by the Supreme Court of B.C.
Ascent, through its subsidiaries, will continue to own the assets related to Ascent’s cannabis cultivation, production, distribution, research and product development business in Oregon, Nevada and Denmark.
ncorbett@mapleridgenews.com
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