Cannabis

Ohio’s weed embrace faces federal buzzkill

9 Nov 2023

Buckeye State voters backed legal recreational cannabis, bringing nearly half the country on board. More Americans now smoke weed than cigarettes, yet the industry’s market value is dwarfed by tobacco’s. National legal roadblocks and hazy growth prospects cloud the path forward.

Capital Calls: US budget

21 Sep 2023

Concise views on global finance: US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is siding with hardline conservatives to fund the government. Empowering the further-right flank narrows the already slim odds of new Ukraine aid, cannabis reform and crypto clarity.

Canada’s weed lead is running out of puff

21 Dec 2021

The country’s homegrown outfits are angling for the U.S. market, which could be worth $40 bln a year by 2026. The high after Ottawa's early legalization of cannabis is fading, however. Canadian players in the pot sector need to act soon to make the most of the remaining buzz.

Italy will be first to light up Europe’s weed biz

22 Sep 2021

A nationwide plebiscite will seek to legalise cannabis. Taxing recreational dope may add some 6 bln euros to strained state coffers, and production for medical and other uses will also rise. As the U.S. experience shows, if Rome crosses the sticky line, neighbours will follow.

Regulatory jujitsu turns CBD into $7 bln deal

3 Feb 2021

It was a long slog for GW Pharmaceuticals to win official approval for an epilepsy drug derived from cannabis. This difficulty is now a moat, and has attracted a buyer willing to pay a 50% premium. Rivals will have to jump the same regulation hoops to earn a similar valuation.

Weedmaps deal marks a high point of the SPAC boom

10 Dec 2020

The business operates on the cleaner side of the cannabis trade, running a dealer review site and offering software to the pot industry. Business is booming. And legal complexities ironically give it some protection. They also make it a better candidate for a SPAC than an IPO.

Viewsroom: What Biden bodes for money and markets

7 Nov 2020

Without a clear Senate majority, the former vice president will need to tack to the center when he occupies the White House. For Wall Street that’s a bullet dodged. For other industries, it’s a mixed bag. For multilateral institutions, it’s an improvement from Donald Trump.

Corporate America prepares for life in purple

7 Nov 2020

From finance to tech to weed to transport, companies have had plenty of time to consider what a Joe Biden presidency means. Without a clear Senate shift one way or the other, legislative gridlock appears likely. Here is what the 2020 election will mean industry by industry.

The Biden portfolio is mainly the Trump portfolio

29 Oct 2020

It might matter for mini sectors, like solar power and cannabis, who wins next week’s U.S. presidential election. But as Trump’s impact on coal shows, it’s not that predictable. Instead the Fed, stimulus, taxes and the post-Covid economy are cause for an asset-allocation rethink.

Viewsroom: Vices and more

9 Apr 2020

Breakingviews columnists in Ireland, New York and Lantau check in with Editor Rob Cox to discuss Jamie Dimon’s annual letter and coming earnings onslaught, fraud at Luckin Coffee and, everybody’s favorite coronavirus obsession: a boom in sales of porn, weed, booze and junk food.

Canopy ouster catapults cannabis into adolescence

3 Jul 2019

The biggest producer of legal weed has fired founder and co-CEO Bruce Linton amid widening losses and tensions with biggest investor Constellation Brands. Capital has rolled into cannabis based on little more than grand ideas. Fighting over how it’s spent is part of growing up.

Weed giant chooses odd way to lay down U.S. roots

18 Apr 2019

Canopy Growth has struck an unusual deal to buy an American rival for $3.4 bln – if marijuana becomes legal there. It’s a clever way of getting into the world’s biggest market. The question is why the Canadian outfit would want a company happy to accept this lopsided arrangement.

Peltz is triple threat of cannabis endorsements

13 Mar 2019

Aurora Cannabis gets three things from hiring activist Nelson Peltz as an adviser: financial credibility, consumer expertise and contacts at companies like P&G. Other investors can ride on his coattails. The catch is that VIP patrons like Peltz get terms mere mortals can’t touch.

The Exchange: Big Weed’s big year

11 Jan 2019

Bruce Linton runs the world's biggest cannabis producer, Canopy Growth. He visited Breakingviews to discuss what's coming down the pipe in 2019, why a $100 bln weed company is still some way off, and why he doesn't actually partake - yet.

Constellation finds pipe dreams and debt don’t mix

9 Jan 2019

Higher costs and slower shipments hit the Modelo brewer’s earnings. The real driver of value ought to be its 38 pct stake in weed grower Canopy. But valuing its future potential is nigh impossible – whereas the debt Constellation used to fund its cannabis punt is all too real.

Cannabis will take China tech’s path to propriety

3 Jan 2019

A subversive industry feared by the establishment, with investors reliant on legal loopholes: American pot companies are starting out much like Chinese tech giants did. In the same fashion, as this shadowy industry creates jobs and wealth, appetite for reining it in will wane.

Aphria bid takes weed M&A to new level of chutzpah

28 Dec 2018

Pot retailer Green Growth is mulling a hostile all-stock bid for the $2 bln Canadian grower. Synergies are negligible, the 46 pct premium is illusory and the target would lose listings in New York and Toronto. A brave try, but one Aphria would have to be high as a kite to accept.

Weed, China, guns and money lead most-read stories

27 Dec 2018

We promised 2018 would bring “Froth and Frustration,” and that’s just what readers got. Other topics that piqued your interest: Rising populism in Italy, Brazil and France; Broadcom’s doomed bid for Qualcomm and the sale of Refinitiv by Breakingviews’ parent. Plus, fake meat.

Cannabis starts to copy tech’s Indian rope trick

7 Dec 2018

Marlboro maker Altria is spending $1.8 billion – more than a 40 percent premium – for a 45 percent stake in pot grower Cronos. The valuation is both high and irrelevant. Cannabis is beginning to adopt Silicon Valley’s belief that the winner is whoever has the most cash.

Big Weed is better off without Big Tobacco embrace

3 Dec 2018

Altria can easily afford to swallow $2 bln pot producer Cronos. It’s the seller – and its peers – that could pay a high price. Companies want the product to be seen as medicinal not lethal, edible not smokable, and more like beer than tobacco. Not all capital infusions are equal.