DEA-Licensed Cannabis Producer Bright Green Corp Heading For NASDAQ, Current Valuation $650M

Bright Green Corp., a Fort Lauderdale-based company with conditional approval from the DEA to produce cannabis, is filing to list its shares on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “BGXX”.  

One of the very few companies selected by the US government to grow, manufacture and sell, legally under federal and state laws, cannabis and cannabis-related products for research, pharmaceutical applications and export, Green Bright is led by CEO Edward A. Robinson, a former executive at BMW BYMOF Financial Services, and chairman Terry Rafih, owner and CEO of Rafih Automotive Group.

Bright Green disclosed 157.6 million shares of stock held privately by 425 stockholders of record as of Feb. 28. Based on a price of $4 a share in a private stock sale in January, the company’s current valuation is about $630 million, which would make it larger than many U.S. cannabis companies that trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange and the OTC market, noted Market Watch.

Bright Green Corp. is working with EF Hutton, a division of Benchmark Investments LLC, to list its shares and to propose a public market price when the stock debuts.

In May 2021, the company entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA to grow cannabis for federally sanctioned research. Bright Green Corp. expects to win final registration in May, contingent upon completion of construction and a successful inspection by the DEA of its grow facilities. 

“We plan to sell cannabis to research institutions pursuant to our conditional approval from the DEA,” the company reported. “Sales of THC cannabis products will be made only via bona fide supply agreements from existing DEA registrants, and not directly to consumers.”

Bright Green said it plans to receive a Controlled Substances Bulk Manufacturing License from the DEA, although there is no guarantee it will win final approval.

“Given the competitiveness of the process to obtain a DEA registration to cultivate and process cannabis, and the continued federal illegality of cannabis in the U.S., we believe we will be uniquely positioned to capture significant parts of the cannabis research supply market,” the company noted.

“We will operate legally under all applicable laws and be authorized by the federal government to sell cannabis commercially for research and manufacturing purposes, export cannabis for international cannabis research purposes, and sell cannabis to DEA-registered pharmaceutical companies for the production of medical cannabis products and preparations,” Bright Green wrote in its prospectus.

Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash