LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Investment company FastForward Innovations has invested €3m (£2.5bm) in Germany-based, Europe-focussed vertically-integrated medical cannabis company Eurox Group, it announced on Monday.
The AIM-traded firm said it expected to hold 8.85% of Eurox following the issue of new shares from the financing round.

It said the investment in Eurox would provide FastForward with direct exposure to a company focussed on the German medical cannabis market, which was "by far" the largest in Europe.

Eurox was "well-positioned" in Germany and the broader European medical cannabis sector, with its main operations being in Germany, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

"This investment is the result of many months of work, and is fully aligned with our comprehensive investment strategy in the European wellness and medical cannabis space, that includes having both liquid and non-liquid assets in our portfolio," said chief executive officer Ed McDermott.

"This is a meaningful private equity deal and it represents an important addition to FastForward's portfolio of investments in Europe's growing cannabis-sector."

FastForward said its vice-president of investment analysis, Alfredo Pascual, would join the Eurox supervisory board, or 'Aufsichtsrat' in due course.

Alfredo Pascual said Eurox had built a "strong" value proposition, with the capability to develop, get manufactured and sell its own-branded, unique, 'made in Germany', EU GMP medical cannabis extracts and isolates.

"As a company built from the ground up in Europe and led by a European management team, we see immense potential in Eurox to become the next vertically integrated medical cannabis leader on the continent," Pascual said.

"We were attracted to Eurox's investment opportunity by a number of factors including the company's prudent cash burn rate to date and realistic plans.

"Those plans include offering unique products across all relevant medical cannabis segments: dried flower, full-spectrum extracts and isolates."

At 0859 BST, shares in FastForward Innovations were down 1.84% at 8p.

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