Once again, medical cannabis producer Vitura Health (ASX: VIT) has become the only ASX-listed company operating in the medicinal cannabis space to both generate a profit and declare a dividend since its ASX initiation in 2019.
The Company will pay a dividend to shareholders in respect of FY23. The Dividend, which will be paid at a rate of 1.0 cent per ordinary share, will be fully franked.
CEO and Executive Director, Rodney Cocks, said, “Based on the hard work of the Vitura team, it is gratifying that the Company can share its success with its shareholders in such a very tangible way – and we thank our loyal shareholders for their continued support. As we move forward into the 2024 financial year, the Company is continuing to execute against its long-term strategy to deliver further growth and shareholder value.”
Vitura Health creates and sells medical cannabis products via its digital, telehealth platforms through its five subsidiaries. FY23 was a great year for the Company as it generated $117.3 million in revenues and nearly $13.8 million in net profit after tax, an increase of 129% on FY22. The revenue amount comprised sales of its medicinal cannabis products, amounting to $115.3 million, and medical consultation fees of $1.5 million, as well as $466,279 from the sale of non-medical, or consumer, products in both Australia and Asia. The increase in sales of medicinal cannabis products was particularly strong, recording growth of 78% as compared to the prior year.
It kept developing and improving the efficiency and functionality of its online digital marketplace platform, CanView. The platform facilitates the exchange of information, products and services between four key user groups: suppliers, prescribers, pharmacies and patients. Additionally, Vitura’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Queensland-based medical cannabis wholesaler Burleigh Heads Cannabis, via CanView, continued to deliver significant growth. It sold more than 945,000 medicinal cannabis units, representing an increase of 94% as compared to FY22, with a peak of nearly 90,000 units sold in the month of May 2023 alone.
Despite doing well in Aus, in January 16, 2023, the Company decided to close three of its physical medicinal cannabis clinic locations on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast and to provide its clinical services to patients nationwide solely via telehealth, widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The last of the Group’s clinics was closed in March 2023.
It also departed Asia in FY23. The Company realised that the consumer business there no longer formed a core part of the Group’s operations and decided to shut shop. To further improve efficiencies, Vitura has adopted an “asset light” business model, as per which it has outsourced the cultivation and manufacture of the medicinal cannabis products it sells and distributes on the platform to selected third-party manufacturers and suppliers.
Vitura announced its inaugural dividend on August 26, 2022, when the Directors resolved to pay a maiden dividend of one cent per ordinary share in respect of the year ended 30 June 2022. $5.5 million was paid on October 11, 2022, a rarity amongst the ASX’s traditionally cash-consuming cannabis sector.
Going forward, the Vitura Health Board will keep looking at distributing dividends in a way that makes the most of what’s best for the Company and its shareholders. At the same time, it will keep casting around for growth opportunities for its medical cannabis products.
Alinda is a Business Reporter for The Sentiment
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