It's not uncommon for a company to be in business for many years before it becomes publicly traded. In the case of Jushi Holdings (JUSHF 0.49%), it went public less than two years after its founding. In this Motley Fool Live segment, aired on Oct. 21, Fool.com contributor Rachel Warren interviews Jim Cacioppo, the CEO and founder of Jushi, about management's decision to take the company public.
Rachel Warren: Jushi went public in June 2019, which is about a year and a half after its founding. It trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange under ticker J-U-S-H, and on the U.S. over-the-counter exchange under ticker J-U-S-H-F. You've already shared with us a bit about the story of starting the company. But I was wondering what specifically led management to decide to take Jushi public so early on in its growth story?
Jim Cacioppo: We had this big need for capital based on our M&A [mergers and acquisitions] capabilities, and we lined up some great deals. We needed the capital. We had been very successful before we went public in that short period of time of 18 months. I don't know if we raised maybe it was $70 million, which is a lot. We had some deals contingent upon the IPO, which was another about $70 million of capital raise. Then we actually needed to do as a public company because in Pennsylvania and Illinois, it's much easier to become license holders as a public company. There's a public company exception.
If not, you had to get every shareholder to get fingerprinted in Pennsylvania, for example, and that wasn't possible. We had over 100 shareholders. They would not have been too happy with me. We would've been forced to go public, and we did that, and it's worked out well. It feeds to our skills. Remember, I've had a tremendous experience in the public markets through managing hedge funds.
