Viridian Cannabis Deal Tracker: Investment And M&A Remain Very Low, Compared To 2018

The Viridian Cannabis Deal Tracker is an information service that monitors capital raise and M&A activity in the legal cannabis industry. Analyzing within 12 key industry sectors, the Viridian Cannabis Deal Tracker provides cannabis companies, investors, and acquirers with the data, trends, and intelligence they need to make informed decisions regarding deal valuations, terms, and structures. Since its inception, the Viridian Cannabis Deal Tracker has tracked and analyzed more than 2,400 capital raises totaling over $29 billion as well as more than 900 M&A transactions. Find it exclusively on Benzinga Cannabis every week!

INVESTMENT AND M&A ACTIVITY IN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY

12/02/2019 - 12/06/2019

CAPITAL RAISES

• Number of transactions are down again this week vs. the prior year period (2 vs. 14) as is the aggregate dollars raised ($10.5M vs. $189.6M) as the market crawls to year-end.
• Vertosa, run by industry veteran Ben Larson, raised $6 million as the CBD space continues to expand. As the demand for CDB grows, companies are looking for better solutions to infuse products from a taste, consistency and bio-availability perspective.
• Leaf Trade raised growth capital to expand its wholesale marketplace. Technology is gaining traction as operators are rewarded for running a more operationally efficient business.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

• We continue to see a lack of acquisition activity as operators focus on existing assets and organic growth.
• There is a market shift towards stock-for-stock mergers vs cash-based acquisitions in order to achieve economies of scale while preserving cash. 
• More companies are terminating previously announced transactions that were either overpriced at the time of the announcement or are no longer core to organic growth.
• We are also seeing an increased pace of asset divestitures meant to raise capital. 4Front Ventures announced the divestiture of its Arkansas assets last week. 

WEEKLY SUMMARY

CAPITAL RAISES

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

YEAR-TO-DATE SUMMARY

CAPITAL RAISES

 

Capital Raises by Week

Capital Raises by Sector

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

 

M&A Activity by Week

M&A Activity by Sector

 

Photo by Javier Hasse.

The preceding article is from one of our external contributors. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited.