Canopy acquires Colombian pot firm
TORONTO Leading Canadian pot producer Canopy Growth Corp. made several splashy announcements about its operations at home and abroad Thursday, including a potentially US$150-million-plus plan to target Latin America’s emerging medical marijuana market.
“This isn’t a strategy about more growing that we’ll try to send back to Canada or something like that,” said Mark Zekulin, president and co-CEO of Canopy, during a conference call. “This is about building a Latin American market.”
As part of that plan, Smiths Falls, Ont.-based Canopy announced a new subsidiary, Canopy LATAM Corp., that “will advance medical cannabis throughout Latin America,” according to a release.
Canopy also announced that its newly minted Canopy LATAM unit acquired Spectrum Cannabis Colombia S.A.S., which was formerly known as Colombian Cannabis S.A.S. The deal could be worth up to US$96 million in Canopy stock, depending on whether four future “milestones” are met.
Colombian Cannabis had both an ideal site for growing and the required national licences to produce, manufacture and export cannabis derivatives, the release said.
Spectrum Cannabis Colombia will now build the facilities for “value-added production and sales” in Colombia and the region around it, Canopy added, with construction expected to start by the end of this summer and finish within a year.
“Colombia has a proud history of agricultural production and global leadership, from coffee to cacao to roses to orchids, and thanks to progressive cannabis legislation, it is strategically positioned to serve as Canopy Growth’s production, processing, and export hub for Latin America with its operations central to the growth strategy for Canopy LATAM,” the release said.
Financial Post