Pot lottery winners field offers to partner

TORONTO — Businesses and investors are rushing to partner with the 25 winners of the Ontario cannabis retail licence lottery, with offers apparently worth millions of dollars, to be involved in the province’s first recreational weed stores set to open this spring.

Olivia Brown, the founder of Hamilton-based Professional Cannabis Consulting, says one of her clients was among the 25 entities selected by the province via lottery, and has fielded three “big offers” on Monday alone.

“There’s a couple of large investors, one from the United States, one of them from Amsterdam ... a very established Hamilton family looking to invest,” said Brown, who said her client did not want to be named.

The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced late Friday the 25 entities who can now apply for a cannabis retail licence in Canada’s most populous province, out of the 17,320 expressions of interest the government agency received. There were also 100 applicants on the wait list.

The biggest industry players, however, were kept at bay as the province’s regulations stipulate applicants cannot qualify for a retail licence if it is more than 9.9 per cent owned or controlled by one or more licensed producer.

The vast majority of those lottery entries were from sole proprietorships, at 64 per cent, followed by corporations at 33 per cent, and partnerships and limited partnerships at three and one per cent, respectively. There were no big cannabis industry names among the 25 winners.