SASKATOON, Saskatchewan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CanniMed Therapeutics Inc. (TSX:CMED) (“CanniMed” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that Glass Lewis & Co (“Glass Lewis”), a second leading independent proxy voting advisory firm, has recommended that CanniMed shareholders vote “FOR” the acquisition of Newstrike Resources.
Glass Lewis' recommendation follows Institutional Shareholder Services’ ("ISS") last week in recommending CanniMed shareholders vote FOR on managements Green Proxy.
In reaching its recommendation that CanniMed shareholders vote “FOR,” Glass Lewis stated:
“Our analyses suggest that the Newstrike/CanniMed merger represents the superior value proposition for CanniMed shareholders at this time” while also recognizing that the “recent run-up in Newstrike’s share price, together with the merger exchange ratio, would seemingly imply a significant amount of upside for CanniMed’s shares.”
In addressing the hostile bid from Aurora, Glass Lewis confirms that “the Aurora Offer represents a largely opportunistic attempt by Aurora to gain control of the Company on terms that largely favor Aurora at the detriment to CanniMed shareholders, particularly in an industry upside scenario.
“The Aurora Offer, as currently structured, effectively restrains the near-term upside to CanniMed, particularly as the share prices of Aurora and most other cannabis firms have risen since Aurora first announced its offer…considering the foregoing, the headline unaffected market premium of the Aurora Offer is no longer financially compelling to CanniMed shareholders, in our view.”
Glass Lewis also added “Had Aurora been truly serious about acquiring the Company for a fair value, we believe that Aurora would have proposed a structure that did not cap the value being offered to CanniMed shareholders.”
Brent Zettl President and CEO, CanniMed, stated in response to the positive recommendation: “We welcome the positive recommendation from Glass Lewis as momentum continues to build in our favour against the opportunistic bid from Aurora and in support of the accretive Newstrike acquisition. Glass Lewis clearly understands that the hostile bid makes no sense whatsoever for our shareholders. We encourage our shareholders to follow the recommendation of Glass Lewis, ISS and the Board, by voting FOR the acquisition of Newstrike and saying NO to Aurora by not tendering and not voting on the blue proxy.”
Shareholders are reminded every vote counts regardless of how many shares they own and to vote their green proxies by January 19th, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time).
If you need help voting, please contact Kingsdale Advisors at 1-888-518-1554 toll-free in North America, or 416-867-2272 outside North America or by email at contactus@kingsdaleadvisors.com. We have a team standing by to help make it easy to vote your proxy or voting instruction form.
About CanniMed Therapeutics Inc.
CanniMed is a Canadian-based, international plant biopharmaceutical company and a leader in the Canadian medical cannabis industry, with 17 years of pharmaceutical cannabis cultivation experience, state-of-the-art, GMP-compliant production process and world class research and development platforms with a wide range of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products. In addition, the Company has an active plant biotechnology research and product development program focused on the production of plant-based materials for pharmaceutical, agricultural and environmental applications.
CanniMed, through its subsidiaries, was the first producer to be licensed under the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, the predecessor to the current Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations. It was the sole supplier to Health Canada under the former medical cannabis system for 13 years, and has been producing safe and consistent medical cannabis for thousands of Canadian patients, with no incident of product diversion or recalls.
For more information, please visit our websites: www.cannimed.ca (patients) and www.cannimedtherapeutics.com (investors).
About Glass Lewis
Glass Lewis is the leading independent provider of global governance services, helping institutional investors understand and connect with the companies they invest in. Glass Lewis empowers more than 1,200 institutional investors to make sound voting decisions at more than 20,000 meetings a year by uncovering and assessing governance, business, legal, political and accounting risks at issuers domiciled in 100 countries.
