Why Bright Green Stock Was a Hot “Go” Stock Today

What happened

One of the more unusual stocks in the unusual industry of marijuana, Bright Green (BGXX 12.32%), was quite the outlier on Thursday. In contrast to the sluggish performance of other weedies, Bright Green’s stock sparked more than 12% higher, an apparent slow-burn reaction to some promising news the company announced earlier in the week. 

So what

What makes Bright Green such a standout company is that it is the only publicly traded business licensed by the U.S. federal government to grow and sell (to licensed entities) marijuana and related products. Weed is technically illegal at the federal level, which is the main reason why there isn’t a plethora of companies like Bright Green.

Tuesday morning, Bright Green announced — despite being a pre-revenue business — that it has signed a letter of intent with the U.K.’s Alterola Biotech to begin acquiring the British cannabis-focused pharmaceutical company.

The initial stage of this will see Bright Green purchase 25% of Alterola’s outstanding common stock for $4 million. It will then receive a six-month option to buy the remainder of the company for an additional $6 million, plus $40 million worth of Bright Green stock. The two companies will together develop a strategic partnership.

In its press release trumpeting the deal, Bright Green wrote that it and Alterola “believe a successful collaboration will create a strong pathway to secure, provide, and supply cannabis and derivative products to the pharmaceutical industry.”

Now what

The delayed investor reaction probably had something to do with Bright Green’s constricted financial position. Again, it’s a pre-revenue company, and it had less than $179,000 in cash on hand as of the end of June (although total liquidity, which includes the balance of a credit facility, totaled $3.2 million). The company did not specify how it would fund the cash portion of the Alterola buy.

Regardless, investors finally seemed to decide that the potential tie-up would be beneficial for Bright Green. But the announcement of the deal still leaves important questions unanswered, so care should be exercised here.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.