Canadian firm Relevium struggles with direction as restriction placed on stock trades

By Hank Schultz

- Last updated on GMT

©Getty Images - Adam Smigielski
©Getty Images - Adam Smigielski

Related tags hemp extracts hemp farming CBD and Hemp

Canadian firm Relevium Technologies says it will file its belated financial statements by the end of January 2022, which would lift a ban placed by regulators on sales of stock by the company’s management.

Relevium, which at one time had an emphasis on hemp/CBD as well as medical cannabis products, appears to be laboring under the market lull that has affected a number of hemp/CBD firms.  The combination of a shift in buying behaviors brought on by the pandemic coupled with continued regulatory uncertainty in the US market has put many smaller hemp/CBD firms under pressure.

In the case of Relevium, it’s hard to say exactly what the company’s financial position is because it has not filed financial statements for a number of months. As a result, in early November Canadian regulators slapped a management cease trading order (MCTO) on the company, preventing any officer from selling shares of the company’s stock.  The idea behind a MCTO is to prevent company officers from profiting from information that is not supplied to the market at large.

From hemp to — gloves?

Several bits of news put out by the company point to a firm that’s struggling to find direction.

Earlier in November, the company announced two deals worth a total of about $11.7 million to supply medical grade nitrile gloves.  The press release announcing this news described the company this way: “Relevium Technologies is a publicly traded company, focused on international procurement, logistics, and delivery of PPE into the North American marketplace.”

At the time of the announcement of the PPE contracts, the company said the deals would more than double the company’s annual revenue, which in the prior two years (2018 and 2019) had been about $4 million. 

However, in press releases put out updating the market on progress the company has made in filing its financial statements, the company describes itself this way: “Relevium is a publicly traded Company that operates in the health and wellness industry, including legal cannabis, with a primary focus on online distribution. The principal business of the Company is the identification, evaluation, acquisition and operation of brands and businesses in the health and wellness markets and medical cannabis.”

Uncertain status of hemp operations

In 2019 the company reportedly acquired LifeLine Pharma, a Colombian cannabis producer​ with the aim to source less expensive raw material.  It’s unclear whether this facility is still operating.

In late 2019 the company announced the launch of its LeefyLyfe cannabidiol products​, which were planned for sale on Amazon and Walmart websites via the company’s BioGanix supplement subsidiary.  A search on that brand name finds no products for sale and the LeefyLyfe website has been taken down.  A number of supplements under the BioGanix brand name still appear to be for sale.

Relevium’s stock is now trading for 2 cents a share in Canadian currency on the Toronto exchange.  The company’s high point was 26 cents a share (CAD) in 2018.

Relevium officials did not respond to a request for more information in time for the publication of this report.

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