CULT Food Science Corp (CSE:CULT, OTCQB:CULTF) said it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Food Revolution Media Inc (FRM) for a share-based transaction that will see FRM becoming CULT’s wholly-owned subsidiary.
FRM’s principal business is the publishing of news, interviews and editorials on its wholly-owned and administered online domain as well as through its social media accounts, with specific emphasis on early-stage growth companies in the plant-based and cell-based foods sectors, the Vancouver-based company noted.
"Entering into this LOI with the intention to acquire FRM marks a strategic evolution for CULT Food Science as we aim to further harness the power of social media to advance the important messaging around cellular agriculture during these inflationary times with respect to food prices,” CULT president Lejjy Gafour said in a statement.
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“The prospect of adding a significant number of people to our audience, who are interested in both food and the capital markets, is exciting and we look forward to entering into a definitive agreement for the transaction in the near future," he added.
FRM’s key assets include but are not limited to the ‘Plant Finance’ brand, website domain and social media profiles on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook as well as the ‘Cell-Based Finance’ brand and ‘CellBased_Fin’ profile on Twitter, CULT noted.
Established in 2020, the Plant Finance website https://www.plantfinance.news/ has become a trusted source of information about the plant-based and cell-based food industry, with more than 84,000 average monthly impressions and over one million total impressions from a current audience of about 3,000 viewers in the last 12 months.
The CellBased_Fin profile, launched earlier this year, has over 307,000 average monthly impressions and an audience of over 2,000 viewers.
Growing interest in cell-based food
The level of interest in cellular agriculture and cell-based investing is evident in FRM’s data, CULT said, hence, it views the proposed acquisition as being accretive to amplifying the narrative surrounding its investment portfolio as well as its development of intellectual property in the form of patents and other such assets.
As the global food supply chain continues to be challenged due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, which have caused fertilizer and energy costs to rise significantly, among other inputs, the company said now is a critical time to heighten the public’s awareness of cellular agriculture.
“Now that CULT is connected to a large portfolio of ventures across the cellular agriculture industry, it is time to amplify our unique model and provide people with more information to help them understand that various potential solutions to the world’s food crises and supply chain issues are on the horizon,” CULT CEO Gafour added.
No staff cuts
CULT said it plans to retain all of FRM’s current employees and contractors, who possess key skills, knowledge and relationships about FRM’s assets as well as the food-related markets.
The company and FRM have agreed to negotiate in good faith the terms of a definitive written agreement within 60 days from the LOI.
The proposed transaction is subject to all necessary regulatory approvals, including, as applicable, approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange, completion of due diligence, and entering into a definitive agreement, among other conditions.
It added that the proposed transaction of FRM will not result in a change in the company’s fundamentals or a change in the control of CULT.
CULT, the first-of-its-kind investment platform in North America, focuses exclusively on advancing the development of novel technologies to provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution to the global factory farming crisis.
It aims to provide individual investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat, cell-based dairy and other cultured food companies around the world.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com