In January 2018 ,hundreds of Kenyan investors who bought shares of UK company Atlas African Industries lost all means of tracking performance of the firm after collapse of its website, the only means left for communicating with shareholders.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) had suspended Atlas African Industries from trading at the bourse for a period of 90 days effective May 8.
NSE chief executive officer Geoffrey Odundo attributed the decision to the firm’s unresolved issues at the London Stock Exchange where it was suspended on October 17 following the resignation of its nominated adviser (Nomad)
Carl James Esprey, the Italian whose earlier venture in Kenya Atlas African Industries disappeared with more than Sh450 million of investors’ money, is back in business with a new company seeking to export medical marijuana from African countries, including Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
Mr Esprey, who partnered with Kojo Annan (son of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan) earlier this year to launch African Cannabis, is following the same script that left thousands of investors in Atlas out of pocket.
Details of his new venture are contained in filings with the Canadian capital market regulators, which show that African Cannabis also plans to go public by merging with Trius Investments Inc, a company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) and whose business comprises property investment and garbage collection.
Atlas raised Sh450.1 million in a private placement from Kenyan investors in 2014 when it listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) where it debuted with a market capitalisation of Sh4.9 billion.
Besides participating in the private placement, Kenyan investors also bought shares after the listing but suffered heavy losses when the stock price collapsed from the initial Sh11.5 to Sh1.05 by the time it was suspended from trading in May last year.
After closing the Kenyan operations, Atlas tried its hands at diverse sectors and countries before literally disappearing with no communication to shareholders.
The company ventured into Ethiopia where it said some $2.4 million (Sh244 million) earmarked for building a glass bottle-making plant was illegally seized by Ethiopia’s tax authorities, forcing it to shut down.
It then invested Sh50 million to acquire a minority stake in BonanzaWin, a Nigerian gaming company, marking its last known activity in Africa.
Mr Esprey’s new venture, African Cannabis, is also raising Sh1.5 billion (20 million Canadian dollars) in a private placement in Canada, whose proceeds will be used to fund production and export of medical marijuana.
“African Cannabis is a Toronto-based company incorporated in British Columbia in 2018 to deal in the production, cultivation, extraction and export of medical cannabis in multiple African countries,” the company said in market disclosures.
“African Cannabis was founded and is led by Carl Esprey and Kojo Annan, both experienced African businesspeople with over 40 years’ combined experience on the continent,” it added, making no mention of the Atlas saga.
The 39-year-old Esprey, who is emerging as a controversial globe-trotting financier, had not responded to our emailed queries on his venture by the time of going to press. Calls to his Moroccan telephone number did not go through.
Mr Esprey’s choice of the cannabis business coincides with a wave of legalisation of marijuana around the world and a huge investor appetite for shares in companies producing the commodity.