Marijuana stock Curaleaf (CURLF -2.56%) is now one pair of assets larger. The company announced that it has received all required regulatory approvals to close a deal it made earlier this year to purchase Acres Cannabis.
Curaleaf's latest acquisition is a privately held company that operates two retail stores in the hot cannabis market of Nevada and includes 37 acres of land in the state.
The land is home to 269,000 square feet of cultivation facilities currently in operation. When Curaleaf originally announced the deal in March, it said that following an expansion project, those facilities are expected to produce around 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilos) of dried flower product annually.
Image source: Getty Images.
As for the two retail stores, one is located close to the Las Vegas Strip, and another is in the eastern Nevada town of Ely. The flagship Las Vegas outlet is a flashy 20,000-square-foot store that is open every day around the clock. Described as a "cannabis experiential store," it features a museum and an open-view processing kitchen in which extracts and edibles are made. The store also hosts a marijuana farmers' market on weekends.
Curaleaf, based in Massachusetts, aims to expand its geographic footprint. The company said in its press release on the closing that it "will be another milestone in our strategy to expand Curaleaf's presence across the United States."
Curaleaf added that it also "solidifies our vertically integrated operations in Nevada, complementing our existing assets, and providing a platform to grow our retail and wholesale businesses in the state."
Going by legalization initiatives, the Western U.S. is more favorably inclined to marijuana. All four Pacific Coast states (California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska) have sanctioned cannabis for both medical and recreational use, as have Nevada and Colorado. Nevada legalized medical cannabis in 2000 and recreational use in 2016.
Image source: Acres Cannabis.
Curaleaf and Acres Cannabis originally announced their deal in March. The former is paying $70 million, $45 million of which consists of Curaleaf stock and the remainder of cash. "Additional consideration" will be paid if financial milestones are exceeded; Curaleaf did not specify what those milestones were or how much it would pay.
Following the regulatory approvals, both parties agreed to close the acquisition on Jan. 1, 2020. At the moment, Curaleaf says it has 51 dispensaries, 14 cultivation properties, and 13 processing sites. It operates in 12 states throughout the U.S.
