The week in cannabis was full of change, including the Tilray-Aphria merger that makes it one of the world’s biggest weed companies, the decision to drop the “snortable” cannabis powder Canna Bumps, Mars Wrigley serves notice to cannabis providers over unauthorized packaging and the head of Organigram steps down.
Tilray and Aphria combo to be big on global stage
It’s a done deal for the merging of Tilray, Inc. and Aphria Inc., two Canadian cannabis giants, said to create a weed-focused company with the largest global geographic footprint in the industry.
First announced in December, the business combination means the new company operating as Tilray had a market cap of about US$8.2 billion ($10.1 billion) based on the closing stock prices on Apr. 30.
As part of the deal, each Aphria shareholder received 0.8381 of a Tilray share for each Aphria common share held as of that date, according to Tilray, which has operations in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia and Latin America.
The planned Tilray logo blends the branding of both companies, highlighting the new company’s growing portfolio of lifestyle and wellness brands, the company statement notes.
As COVID-19 lifts and markets open up, “Tilray is poised to strike and transform the industry” because of, among other things, its mix of medical and adult-use cannabis brands and products, multi-continent distribution network and “robust capital structure to fund our global expansion strategy,” says chairman and CEO Irwin Simon.
Tilray “has the strategic footprint and operational scale necessary to compete more effectively in today’s consolidating cannabis market,” the company reports.
It notes that in Canada, products will be supported by low-cost, state-of-the-art cultivation, processing and manufacturing facilities, while in Germany, the company is well-positioned to pursue international growth opportunities with its medical cannabis brands, German distribution network and European Union supply chain.
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