Red Light Holland CEO Todd Shapiro Speaks on Bruce Linton and The HighBrid Lab
We chatted with Bruce Linton when Creso Pharma (ASX: CPH) and Red Light Holland Corp (CNSX: TRIP) (OTCMKTS: TRUFF) announced their plans to create a single global psychedelics and cannabinoid company called The HighBrid Lab. Today, The Dales Report is pleased to welcome Red Light Holland CEO Todd Shapiro to our table to discuss their end of the deal with HighBrid and what investors should be getting excited about.
Here’s some highlights from the interview.
What Todd Shapiro loves about the deal to merge into HighBrid:
Shapiro says that Creso’s research and development and Red Light’s branding and marketing is a great match. Creso has a lot of products and has done a great deal of work to create them, he adds, and now it’s time to amplify the sales of them.
He also confirms that it is true that he’ll become CEO of the new entity, HighBrid, and that Bruce Linton will be taking on a role as non-executive chairman. What Bruce does very well, Shapiro comments, is “putting together an incredible team of workers who want to change the world and increase shareholder value”.
Shapiro says that the two companies are farmers, emphasizing that growing mushrooms and cannabis is an important piece of the puzzle for future growth, and even impacting the future of the regulatory framework.
Shapiro explains how the HighBrid merger works out for shareholders
If you look at the proforma and the ratio, .395, says Shapiro, it works out that Creso Pharma will have approximately 57% of all the shares outstanding, and Red Light’s shareholders will keep 43%. He explains that if you have 1000 shares of Creso, they will be replaced with 395 shares of Red Light. There will be no changes for people who have shares of Red Light Holland.
More on the exchange ratio can be found here.
Red Light working with other mushroom farmers – but still psychedelics focused, says Shapiro
In April 2021, Red Light Holland announced intent to acquire 80% of Happy Caps Urban Gourmet Mushroom Farm (happycaps.ca). This past week, they also announced an intent acquire 51% of Acadian Exotic Mushrooms (AEM) from Holburne Mushroom Farm and Carleton Mushroom Farms Owners Mike and Fernando Medeiros.
The two companies, both located in Atlantic Canada, represent 13 million pounds of mushrooms being grown for grocery stores and restaurants. But Shapiro says this deal is important because that should psilocybin ever “come into play” in Canada, they would want to be working with the best people in the mushroom industry – and those who have political connections, and know how to work with regulatory frameworks.
Shapiro adds that Happy Caps was a strategic investment, since the company specializes in quality ‘grow your own mushroom kits’, mushroom plug spawn and fresh mushrooms for the wholesale market. He expects to test the products out on Red Light’s marketing strategy, and says that investors will be able to see a lot of marketing for Happy Caps in Canada soon, plus US opportunities as they come.
