Calgary’s Trail Blazing Ventures (TSXV: BLAZ.P), a capital pool company, has filed the paperwork to acquire HEMPALTA in a non-arm’s length transaction. Capital pool companies can be useful to a startup to go public without committing to a lengthy IPO process.
HEMPALTA has been on Calgary.tech’s 2023 watchlist of companies and Foresight Canada’s list of the 50 most investable cleantech companies in the country.
HEMPALTA is an agricultural technology company focused on innovative hemp processing and product creation. The products are made from industrial hemp grown sustainably in Southern Alberta and processed through a specialized HempTrain processing plant in a facility in Calgary.
The non-arm’s length aspect of the business combination is due to Calgary entrepreneur Darren Bondar being the President and CEO of HEMPALTA and a major shareholder in both companies. Approval of the arrangement will therefore rely on gaining a majority of the minority of shareholders of TBV and HEMPALTA.
Bondar was previously the Founder, President and CEO of national cannabis retailer Inner Spirit Holdings, which was acquired by Sundial Growers for $131 million in 2021.
Prior to completing the combination, HEMPALTA intends to complete a brokered private placement offering worth between $1.45 million and $3.3 million. Investors in the private placement will become investors in the new company once it becomes public. Proceeds from the offering are expected to be used to triple HEMPALTA’s hemp processing capacity.
Trading in TBV shares have been halted while the company completes the acquisition. The new company will begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under a new name and ticker symbol once the deal is final.
HEMPALTA has been active recently with an announcement last month to enter the industrial hemp carbon credit space through a partnership with UK-based Hemp Carbon Standard. Bondar will be busy in the coming months raising funds for the private placement to support the transaction as well as achieving the necessary regulatory and exchange approvals.
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