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Stocks Surge Entering the Medical Marijuana Market: Next Gen Emerges as Venture Capitalist to the Industry

Tuesday, 25 March 2014 09:40 AM

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Vancouver, BC / March 25, 2014 / "The Medical Marijuana business is slowly recapitalizing the junior mining industry in Canada," stated Harry Barr, CEO of Next Gen (N: CSE, NXTTF: OTC Pink).

Cases in point:

Satori Resources (BUD: TSXV) appoints Scott Walters; a mining and agricultural consultant specializes in the Medical Marijuana space. In a month, the shares have gone from roughly $0.03 to more than quadruple to a high of $0.13.

Enertopia (ENRT: OTCBB) (TOP: CSE) has been all over the wires with it's plans to enter the space and investors have run the stock from $0.10 to a high of $0.89 in a few months. It has seen trades at $1.00.

Thelon Capital (THC: TSXV) appointed the above-mentioned Scott Walters to its Board. The shares moved from $0.01 to $0.09 over the last month.

Next Gen announced its intention to enter the Legal Marijuana business as a leading provider of venture capital, management expertise, education and a facilitator for this explosive new industry. The shares moved from $0.02 in January to a recent new high of $0.65.

While not a mining company, the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH: NASDAQ) is developing a portfolio of cannabinoid medicines to address a myriad of conditions, including cancer treatment. The shares were listed on the NASDAQ in May 2013 at $8.90. As a result of substantive news flow, decent numbers etc., the shares recently hit $86.45.

So Barr could be right in his assumptions. Being a fixture on the mining scene for more than 30 years. As CEO, Chairman and Director of Pacific North West Capital Corp (PFN: TSXV, PAWEF: OTCQB) he is also Chairman and CEO of El Nino Ventures (ELN: TSXV, ELNOF: OTC Pink), President of Next Gen Minerals and Chairman of Southern Sun Minerals (SSI: TSXV). Pacific North West Capital Corp is a controlling shareholder of Next Gen (22%), approximately 10% of El Nino Ventures and has a modest but important stake in Southern Sun Minerals.

Next Gen is the vehicle Barr is using to insert his expertise into the rapidly growing Legal Medical Marijuana industry, which will take a giant leap forward on April 1st when Canadian regulations will begin allowing licensed producers to grow Medical Marijuana on a commercial basis.

Barr's company has seized the opportunity to incubate and mentor those legal marijuana and hemp companies that have the technical savvy, but require the business acumen that any new or expanding industry needs; be it fundraising, complex negotiation skills, capital markets expertise, public company administration or IPO's.

Management of Next Gen is very good at raising capital. The Company intends to extend its brand to this industry and is actively seeking and reviewing several new business plans. It intends to be a leader in the space and the go-to Company for legal marijuana and industrial hemp investments.

Barr is also not abandoning his mining roots and projects. In Ontario, Barr's Pacific Northwest Capital made a grass roots discovery on its River Valley Platinum Group metal property, which is now a multi-million ounce deposit.

As well, in Bathurst New Brunswick, Mr. Barr's El Nino Venture's has a large land position partnered with Glencore Canada. El Nino has a tri-party agreement in with both Glencore and Votorantim Metals Canada, a subsidiary of Votorantim Metais, which is Brazil's second largest mining company. Earlier this month, El Nino commenced a winter drill program on this project.

From 2011 to 2013 Votorantim and El Nino drilled out and established the largest and newest NI 43-101 resource and completed a preliminary economic assessment (scoping study) on their Bathurst Murray Brook base metal deposit.

It should be no surprise to mining/resource investors that these companies are looking at the Medical Marijuana space. A lot of the same skills are required, such as decisive action, capital raising and finding the best 'deposits', which in this case are those companies who can grow and market a top-quality product within a strict government regulatory regime.

Next Gen is currently reviewing several dozen proposals for financing, consulting etc. Obviously, should the company pick well, take equity, it could be a decent proxy for the growth of the industry. The profits will likely be enormous as we extrapolate the numbers and more US states join both the medical and recreational marijuana markets.

"Recent legal changes have convinced us that this emerging, multi-billion dollar market would benefit from our expertise," states Barr. "Our business model generates dozens of new business plans and industry related proposals, monthly. The investment centres we are focused on are health, agribusiness, food, legal grow-ops, technology, client generation, education, public awareness, specialty clinics and ancillary business opportunities. I am confident we will be able to provide compelling returns for all parties, but in particular our Next Gen shareholders."

The Bottom Line

There is little chance that growth in the Medical marijuana space will stall anytime soon. The majority of support for the legalization exceeds 50% in Boomers and hits 65% for Millennials. From 1969 to 2013, legalization of marijuana supporters grew from 12% to 52%. Those wanting it to remain illegal dropped from 84% to 45% in the period.

Investors need to ensure that they have the right equity exposure to this area, which means taking a hard look at both management and business plans. With Next Gen's decades of experience as successful financiers and infrastructure builders, it appears an excellent group to provide the leadership necessary to build shareholder value in this relatively untapped arena.

Bob Beaty for The Bottom Line Report.

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