Oregon pot firm bought for $1B
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 2, 2019
- The ruling comes after Deschutes County voted to no longer allow any new marijuana growing and processing facilities in the rural part of the county.
Portland-based Cura Cannabis sold Wednesday for more than $1 billion in an all-stock transaction, the largest deal ever among American companies operating in the legalized marijuana business.
Cura sells its cannabis oils on the wholesale and retail market under the Select brand and operates in California, Arizona and Nevada.
The buyer is a Massachusetts company called Curaleaf Holdings, whose shares trades on the Canadian market.
The companies valued the transaction at $949 million based on Curaleaf’s closing stock price Tuesday. But the Massachusetts company’s shares jumped 12 percent Wednesday on word of the transaction, inflating the deal’s value to nearly $1.1 billion, on paper at least.
The deal marries Curaleaf’s focus on the eastern United States with Cura’s markets in the West. The size of the transaction underscores the enormous potential investors see in the market for legalized marijuana and the rapidly evolving commercial landscape within the cannabis sector.
“The transformational acquisition of Cura and the Select brand is another step in our journey to create the most accessible cannabis brands in the U.S.,” Joseph Lusardi, Curaleaf’s chief executive, said in a written statement.
Cura says it has 500 employees and had revenue of $117 million last year, triple its revenue from 2017. It’s actually larger than Curaleaf, which reported $87.8 million in revenue last year.
The combined company will operate in 15 states where marijuana is legal.
The Portland company’s chief executive, Cameron Forni, will become Curaleaf’s president.
“The leading companies in the industry on the West Coast and the East Coast are now joining forces to progress the legalization and mainstream acceptance of cannabis across the country,” Forni said.
Cura sells wholesale cannabis oil used in vaping cartridges to retailers under the brand name Select Oils.
Cura boasts of soaring sales and claims to be the “largest cannabis oil company” in Oregon and California.
Curaleaf said it will acquire Cura in exchange for 95.6 million shares, giving Cura’s investors a 16 percent stake in the Massachusetts company.