Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Note 1 - Nature Of Operations

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Note 1 - Nature Of Operations
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
Notes  
Note 1 - Nature Of Operations

Note 1 - Nature of operations

 

Corporate Structure Overview

 

Mentor Capital, Inc. (“Mentor” or “the Company”), reincorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in September 2015.

 

The entity was originally founded as an investment partnership in Silicon Valley, California by the current CEO in 1985 and subsequently incorporated under the laws of the State of California on July 29, 1994. On September 12, 1996, the Company’s offering statement was qualified pursuant to Regulation A of the Securities Act, and the Company began to trade its shares publicly. On August 21, 1998, the Company filed for voluntary reorganization and, on January 11, 2000, the Company emerged from Chapter 11. The Company relocated to San Diego, California and contracted to provide financial assistance and investment into small businesses. On May 22, 2015, a corporation, named Mentor Capital, Inc. (“Mentor Delaware”) was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware. A shareholder-approved merger between Mentor and Mentor Delaware was approved by the California and Delaware Secretaries of State, and became effective September 24, 2015, thereby establishing Mentor as a Delaware corporation.

 

Beginning September 2008, after the name change back to Mentor Capital, Inc., the Company’s common stock traded publicly under the trading symbol OTC Markets: MNTR and after February 9, 2015, as OTCQB: MNTR and after August 6, 2018, under the trading symbol OTCQX: MNTR.

 

In 2009, the Company began focusing its investing activities in leading-edge cancer companies. In 2012, in response to government limitations on reimbursement for certain highly technical and expensive cancer treatments and a resulting business decline in the cancer immunotherapy sector, the Company decided to exit that space. In the summer of 2013, the Company was asked to consider investing in a cancer-related project with a medical marijuana focus. On August 29, 2013, the Company decided to divest of its cancer assets and focus future investments in the medical marijuana and cannabis sector. In March 2018, the Company sold its equity interest in our final remaining cancer investment.

 

Mentor has a 51% interest in Waste Consolidators, Inc. (“WCI”). WCI was incorporated in Colorado in 1999 and operates in Arizona and Texas. It is a legacy investment which was acquired prior to the Company’s current focus on the cannabis sector and is included in the consolidated financial statements presented. The Company may divest of WCI in the future to concentrate solely on cannabis investments.

 

On February 28, 2014, the Company entered into an agreement to purchase 60% of the outstanding shares of Bhang Corporation, formerly known as Bhang Chocolate Company, Inc. (collectively referred to as “Bhang”), which was ultimately rescinded. Following arbitration, on December 29, 2016, Mentor obtained a judgment against Bhang in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The judgment was comprised of $1,500,000 invested by Mentor into Bhang plus pre-judgment interest in the amount of $421,535. The judgment accrued post-judgment interest at the rate of 10% from December 29, 2016 through November 20, 2017, when the parties agreed to stipulated payment terms. The receivable from Bhang at December 31, 2017 includes $1,500,000 of principal plus accrued interest of $540,521 and reimbursed costs of $5,147, less $58,569 interest due to two Bhang shareholders for shares of Mentor Common Stock which were returned to the Company in January 2018 per the stipulated agreement. The judgment was paid to Mentor in full in January 2018, see Note 5

 

On April 18, 2016, the Company formed Mentor IP, LLC (“MCIP”), a South Dakota limited liability company and wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor. MCIP was formed to invest in intellectual property and specifically to hold the investment in patent interests obtained on April 4, 2016 when Mentor Capital, Inc. entered into an agreement with R. Larson and Larson Capital (“Larson”) to seek and secure the benefits of mutual effort directed toward the capture of license fees from domestic and foreign THC and CBD cannabis vape patents. See Note 22.

 

On April 13, 2017, Mentor entered into an agreement to provide $40,000 of funding to offset costs of the application of cannabis oil in a glaucoma study conducted by and otherwise paid for by Dr. Robert M. Mandelkorn, MD. Mentor, doing business as GlauCanna, will hold an 80% interest in any commercial opportunities that result from the study. Dr. Mandelkorn will hold the remaining 20%.

 

On June 30, 2017, the Company converted its original $100,000 convertible promissory note from Electrum Partners, LLC (“Electrum”) plus accrued and unpaid interest of $7,772 into an equity interest in Electrum, at a conversion price of $19 per interest, for 5,672 membership interest units. The investment in Electrum is reported in the consolidated balance sheets as a minority investment at cost of $107,772 at December 31, 2018 and 2017, see Note 14.

 

On April 28, 2017, the Company invested an additional $100,000 in Electrum (Note II) as a convertible note with interest at 10% compounded monthly, with monthly payments of principal and interest of $2,290 beginning June 12, 2017. On May 31, 2018, the Company converted the outstanding Note II balance of $85,188 plus unpaid interest of $1,068 into 526 membership interest units at a conversion price of $164 per interest. The second investment in Electrum, from converting Note II, is reported in the consolidated balance sheets as a minority investment at cost of $86,256 at December 31, 2018. The outstanding balance on Note II at December 31, 2017 was $94,806, see Note 8. Subsequent to year-end, on January 28, 2019, as part of a Second Capital Agreement between Mentor and Electrum (described in Note 27), Mentor was granted an option to convert its 6,198 membership interests in Electrum into a cash payment of $194,028 plus an additional 19.4% of the Recovery.

 

On September 19, 2017, the Company formed Mentor Partner I, LLC (“Partner I”), a California limited liability company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor for the purpose of cannabis-focused investing. For the period of inception to December 31, 2017, there were no operations. For the year ended December 31, 2018, Mentor contributed $996,000 of capital to Partner I to facilitate the purchase of manufacturing equipment to be leased from Partner I by G FarmaLabs Limited (“G Farma”) under a Master Equipment Lease Agreement dated January 16, 2018, as amended. Amendments have expanded the Lessee under the agreement to include G FarmaLabs Limited, G FarmaLabs DHS, LLC, and G FBrands, Inc., formerly known as G FarmaBrands, Inc., (collectively referred to as “G Farma Lease Entities”).

 

On February 1, 2018, the Company formed Mentor Partner II, LLC (“Partner II”), a California limited liability company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor for the purpose of cannabis-focused investing. On February 8, 2018, Mentor contributed $400,000 to Partner II to facilitate the purchase of manufacturing equipment to be leased from Partner II by Pueblo West Organics, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company (“Pueblo West”) under a Master Equipment Lease Agreement dated February 11, 2018.

 

On February 20, 2018, the Company formed Mentor Partner III, LLC (“Partner III”), a California limited liability company, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor for the purpose of cannabis-focused acquisition and investing. Partner III had no activity in 2018.

 

On February 28, 2018, the Company formed Mentor Partner IV, LLC (“Partner IV”), a California limited liability company, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mentor for the purpose of cannabis-focused acquisition and investing. Partner IV had no activity in 2018.

 

On September 6, 2018, the Company entered into an Equity Purchase and Issuance Agreement with G FarmaLabs Limited, G FarmaLabs DHS, LLC, GFBrands, Inc., Finka Distribution, Inc., and G FarmaLabs, WA, LLC under which Mentor received equity interests in the G Farma Equity Entities and their affiliaites (together the “G Farma Equity Entities”) equal to 3.75% of the G Farma Equity Entities interests (See Note 9). In the event that it is illegal or inadvisable for the Company to own any of the equity in one or more G Farm Equity Entities, or the Company elects not to receive any of those shares, the G Farma Equity Entities granted the Company an irrevocable, fully paid, perpetual, right and option to (i) have the G Farma Equity Entities issue the shares and (ii) receive the shares, or any part thereof, at one or more Company elections on payment of $1. Subsequent to year-end, Addendum VIII increased the G Farma Equity Entities’ equity interest to which Mentor is immediately entitied to 3.843%, see Note 27.

 

On October 30, 2018, the Company entered into a Recovery Purchase Agreement with Electrum. Electrum is the plaintiff in an ongoing legal action pending in the Supreme Court of British Columbia (“Litigation”). As described further in Footnote 12 to the attached financial statements, Mentor provided $100,000 in capital for payment of Litigation costs. In exchange, Mentor will receive 10% of anything of value received by Electrum as a result of the Litigation (“Recovery”), after first receiving reimbursement of the Litigation costs. On October 31, 2018, Mentor entered into a secured Capital Agreement with Electrum and invested an additional $100,000 of capital in Electrum. Under the Capital Agreement, on the payment date, Electrum will pay to Mentor the sum of (i) $100,000, (ii) ten percent (10%) of the Recovery, and (iii) 0.083334% of the Recovery for each full month from October 31, 2018 to the payment date for each full month that $833 is not paid to Mentor. The payment date is the earlier of November 1, 2021, or the final resolution of the Litigation. Subsequent to year-end, on January 28, 2019, the Company entered into a second secured Capital Agreement with Electrum and invested an additional $100,000 of capital in Electrum with payment terms similar to the October 31, 2018 Capital Agreement. As part of the January 28, 2019 Capital Agreement Mentor was granted an option to convert its 6,198 membership interests in Electrum into a cash payment plus an additional 19.4% of the Recovery, see Notes 12 and 27.

 

On December 21, 2018, Mentor purchased 500,000 shares of NeuCourt common stock, representing approximately 6.6% of NeuCourt’s issued and outstanding common stock. NeuCourt is a Delaware corporation that is developing a technology that is expected to be useful in the cannabis space.

 

Cannabis cultivation, production and distribution

 

Either independently through several affiliated entities or in conjunction with third parties, G Farma seeks to operate licensed medical cannabis and adult use cannabis business segments in California, Washington, and Nevada. Additionally, significant corporate effort is devoted to securing additional state and local licenses for G Farma to expand its operations organically or through contract manufacturing, licensing or similar partnering arrangements, nationally and internationally. Current expansion is focused on Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan, and Canada. The G Farma model is to purchase or after securing state-by-state licenses, cultivate cannabis for wholesale in flower or in pre-roll form, or as input for G Farma branded products. Branded cannabis-extracted products include drinks, edibles, cartridges, vape pens, and other concentrates. The third segment of G Farma’s business is the distribution of branded and third-party cannabis products to medical and adult use licensed dispensaries. The expansion of the G Farma business is significantly paced by the state-by-state stepped legalization of medical marijuana and adult recreational use of cannabis, followed by the securing by G Farma of government-issued cultivation, production and distribution licenses.