Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB) plans to build a cannabis growing facility that would produce ~150,000 kgs annually
SmallCapPower | April 19, 2018: Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB) Monday announced that it plans to build a massive 1.2 million sq. ft. facility in Medicine Hat, Alberta that would produce ~150,000 kgs annually on completion. For this purpose, Aurora Cannabis has acquired ~71 acres of land and has signed a memorandum of understanding with the City of Medicine Hat that includes a prospective 10-year, 42 MW energy supply agreement. Named ‘Aurora Sun’, the facility will be Aurora’s largest facility and will be 50% larger than the 800,000 sq. ft. ‘Aurora’s Sky’ facility at Edmonton.
For Our Complete Coverage Of Canadian Marijuana Stocks Click Here
To be designed by Aurora’s wholly-owned Aurora Larssen Projects Inc., the facility will encompass advanced technology (Forced air, positive pressure-closed system) and automation (Robotized internal logistics) that would deliver higher capacity and production efficiency along with lower operating costs. Other key features of the facility include specialty glass ensuring optimal light penetration, custom nutrient delivery systems optimized for each respective strain, and HVAC system ensuring optimized climate conditions, amongst others.
Large cannabis producers including Aurora Cannabis continue to boost their production capacity to meet the large recreational opportunity in Canada as well as growing international demand. Canopy Growth currently has licensed domestic growing capacity of 2.4 million sq. ft. feet and is targeting 5.6 million sq. ft of total licensed capacity over the next few years. Aphria is targeting more than 2.0 million sq.ft. of growing capacity by 2019 for a total production capacity of 230,000 kgs annually. The addition of Aurora Sun will expand Aurora’s total production capacity to more than 430,000 kg per year, from the current 280,000 kg per year. First planting at the facility is expected in H1 2019, with completion of the full facility in H2 2019. Aurora Cannabis currently exports to Germany and Italy and plans to use a large proportion of its increasing production capacity to supply additional European medical cannabis markets.
Post the CanniMed Therapeutics acquisition, Aurora Cannabis has become the world’s second-largest cannabis producer and the second most valued cannabis company in Canada, behind Canopy Growth, with a market cap of $4.76 billion. Aurora Cannabis currently trades at price to TTM sales of 153x and price to book of 7.2x.
Disclosure: Neither the author nor his family own shares in any of the companies mentioned above.
To read our full disclosure, please click on the button below:
