Medibis ready to move ahead with first stage of Toowoomba cannabis project through crowd-funding
The medicinal cannabis project has invited residents to become the first investors in the $180m project. The founders explain why they’re exploring crowd-funding.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Residents will be able to invest in a homegrown medicinal cannabis farm to the tune of up to $10,000, as the co-founders prepare to launch a major crowd-funding exercise.
Medibis managing directors Angus Chapel and Andrew Calvert revealed this week they planned to raise up to $3m from ordinary investors in order to launch a range of cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products imported from Israel.
It is the first stage in a $180m plan that will involve the construction of a massive facility on an 11-hectare site in the Charlton-Wellcamp corridor.
“We’ve got a manufacturing partner in Israel who will prepare our formulations for us and the crowdfund will be bringing those products to the market,” Mr Chapel said.
“They’re currently available in other parts of the world, they’ve been on the market for 10 or 15 years and they’ve got a lot of research and proof behind them.
“This will allow us to launch the product range.
“They’re getting shares in a local company and in a Toowoomba company that is part of a new industry and is really growing.”
Mr Chapel said traditional investors and lenders had expressed hesitance in the project, which he put down to the industry being relatively new in Australia.
“The main reason is because we have been profiling what a lot of companies before us have done and it’s a proven way to get us to the next stage,” he said.
“We’ve been in discussions with traditional investors and it’s taken longer than we expected and we feel it’s time to keep moving forward.
“Certainly part of that reluctance was because it’s a new industry, so when you go looking for benchmarks and precedence to measure again, they kind of don’t exist here so it makes it harder for an investor.”
The revenue from the first stage is expected to help fund the development of the facility, which Mr Chapel said would create hundreds of jobs in construction and operation.
“Stage one is four tonnes but we can expand all the way up to 80 or 100 tonnes if we want,” he said.
“Stage one is probably 50 to 60 full-time positions but there are certainly some other employment opportunities.”
Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise export manager Justin Heaven said the project offered a number of greater opportunities for the region.
For more information, head to www.birchal.com/company/medibis.
There’s a quiet revolution at the top of Qantas
A financially strong airline is good for customers, just as much as investors. And one subtle change from the Joyce-era has big implications over how Qantas is run.
Is Amanda Bardwell the one to snap Woolies from its funk?
The new Woolworths boss will need a bolder strategy to turn around the sagging retailer but it’s nearly a mission impossible to now reverse decades of poor execution.
Tripp’s Betr revs up gaming with rival $360m Pointsbet bid
The digital gaming player is on the cusp of breaking into the top tier of Australia’s sports betting market as it enters the Pointsbet bidding war.
What really happened inside the WiseTech boardroom
Richard White is back in control at WiseTech, but its still not clear in what capacity. The mass exit of directors has left the tech company in a full-blown crisis.
Why we’ll likely never see low interest rates again this lifetime
This chart shows why we’re unlikely to see ultra-low interest rates again with history suggesting we may face 40 years of rising rates which could reach up to 8 per cent, writes ASX Trader.
Only recession can make ‘ruthless’ Victoria great again
Not all is lost. Victoria has a clear competitive advantage across four world-beating exports and these mines won’t run dry. But first there will be pain.