ABCann Global is still undervalued, Mackie Research says

Shares of ABCann Global (TSXV:ABCN) have had a strong run of late, but Mackie Research Capital analyst Greg McLeish thinks there is still some money to be made on the stock.

Last week, ABCann announced it had entered into an agreement with underwriters Canaccord Genuity and Eight Capital that would see it raise up to $70-million.

MCLeish notes that ABCann intends to use the proceeds of the raise to accelerate its expansion plans.

“ABcann’s pro-forma cash position is now $125+mm: This $70mm financing will result in the company having a pro-forma cash position of approximately $125+mm. ABcann intends to use its strong balance sheet for the construction and development at its existing Vanluven facility and planned Kimmett facility, product development, corporate development, strategic acquisitions and general working capital,” the analyst says. “ABcann is currently in the process of reviewing its options for capacity expansion at its planned Kimmett Facility: Options include a greenhouse growing facility, an indoor growing facility or a combination thereof. Included in the review is determining the optimum size of the Kimmett Facility, with likely scenarios ranging from 150,000 to 300,000 square feet. The original plans for Kimmett were to build a 150,000 ft² indoor facility that was to be built in two phases. Total production capacity was forecast at 24,000 kg/year and the total cost was forecast at $55 mm. Management is still reviewing its options for Kimmett, however it has the funding to build out the entire 300,000 ft² at Kimmett and this would increase cultivation capacity by approximately 48,000 kg/year.

In a research update to clients today, McLeish maintained his “Buy” rating on ABCann Global, but raised his one-year price target on the stock from $1.50 to $2.85, implying a return of 16.3 per cent at the time of publication.

McLeish thinks ABCann will generate EBITDA of negative $11.99-million on revenue of $802,000 in fiscal 2017. In fiscal 2018, he expects the EBITDA loss will expand to $17.86-million on a topline of $5.56-million.

Disclosure: ABCann Global is an annual sponsor of Cantech.