Shareholders of Organigram Holdings Inc. approved tobacco giant British American Tobacco’s “transformational” investment in the Canadian cannabis producer, the company said following its annual general and special meeting.
The deal, first announced last November, calls for BAT subsidiary BT DE Investments Inc. to invest 124.6 million Canadian dollars ($92.5 million U.S.) in Organigram, deepening the existing partnership between the cannabis company and BAT.
This additional investment will ultimately give BAT a voting common share ownership position of 30% and overall equity interest of 45%.
Most of the money will be used by Organigram to fund a strategic investment pool named Jupiter, which will target investments in emerging cannabis markets.
The first of three tranches of the equity investment closed this week, in which BAT’s subsidiary acquired 12,893,175 of Organigram’s shares for approximately CA$3.20 per share.
“With this transformational deal now formally approved by shareholders and with the first tranche funded, we look forward to delivering on our objectives of geographic and technological growth as well as product expansion,” said Paolo De Luca, chief strategy officer of Organigram.
Gross proceeds for Organigram were CA$41.5 million.
Two further tranches will occur around Aug. 30, 2024 and Feb. 28, 2025, the Canadian company said.
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