$ITHUF iAnthus Capital Acquires Florida's GrowHealthy Inc for $48 Million
By Laura Kuhl
JAN 25, 2018
iAnthus Capital recently purchased GrowHealthy in Florida for $48 million in cash and stock. This acquisition positions iAnthus as one of the top firms to enter Florida’s rapidly expanding medical marijuana industry. Florida legalized medical marijuana just last year and has since granted licenses to 13 operators and over 45,000 patients. With nearly 21 million citizens living in the state, Florida is already planning to grant more in 2018.
iAnthus purchased GrowHealthy for $17.5 million in cash and $30.5 million in comparable shares. The purchase covered the $5 million bond for the state medical marijuana license as well as the 200,000sq.ft. grow facility located in the premier neighborhood of Lake Wales. This facility includes 55 unique strains of medical marijuana as well as an extraction lab and commercial kitchen.
“Florida and its medical cannabis market provide a tremendous opportunity for iAnthus and its shareholders. The state’s population includes a large percentage of older adults who can derive significant benefits from medical cannabis,” iAnthus President Randy Maslow said in the company’s press release just last week.
iAnthus already owns 3 other marijuana operations along the east coast, and now, with this acquisition under their belt, they already have plans to lease and open a new flagship dispensary in West Palm Beach this summer. Two more will open in Tampa and Orlando by the end of the year.
iAnthus, whose home office is in New York City, intends to maintain GrowHealthy’s community-oriented business plan and will continue working with Florida-based growers at McCrory’s Sunny Hill Nursery. iAnthus likes to be involved in every step of their operational process, including cultivation, marketing, and investing. The company’s CEO Hadley Ford recently presented at Canaccord Genuity’s Cannabis Investor Day on Wednesday (January 24th) to speak on the opportunities available to investors within the cannabis industry and what their new purchase means for the future.
This expansion into the Florida cannabis market is a sign of things to come. Last summer, Ford spoke with Marijuana Business Daily. He conveyed his predictions for the market and the industry, stating, “The U.S. markets are three years behind the Canadian in capital formation…I would expect in the next three years for the U.S. market to look more like the Canadian market.”
Right now, iAnthus trades under the Canadian Securities Exchange. Marijuana is still scheduled as illegal under U.S. federal law, so it’s a little easier to raise Canadian capital to invest in American companies like GrowHealthy. Ford looks for what he calls a “ready willingness” to raise capital, and Canadian markets are the only ones showing that kind of enthusiasm for cannabis.
“The availability of private capital in the United States is a little more dire, it’s going to be a little more expensive,” Ford said in his interview. “It’s not a particularly deep market, and it’s hard to access.”
This accessibility will continue to elude investors until the U.S. government expunges marijuana’s illegal scheduling. If it does take three years to catch up like Ford predicts, the United States has a pretty good start, especially when we take look at what’s happening in Florida’s booming marijuana industry.
