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It’s time for your Daily Hit of cannabis financial news for December 22, 2020.

On The Site

Ayr

Ayr Strategies (OTCQX: AYRWF) is buying Liberty Health Sciences (OTC: LHSIF) in an all-stock deal valued at $290 million. In addition, Ayr said it was buying the membership interests in GSD NJ LLC, a licensed operator in New Jersey, for upfront consideration totaling $101 million. Including these and other pending transactions, Ayr said it will have operations in seven states covering 73 million people, which include four adult-use markets and three medical markets.

Columbia Care

Columbia Care Inc.  (OTCQX: CCHWF) is buying privately-held Green Leaf Medical, LLC  for approximately $240 million with the potential for additional performance-based milestone payments. Columbia will make a payment of $240 million, consisting of a cash payment of $45 million with the balance of $195 million being satisfied by the issuance of 43,900,144 common shares of the company. The deal is expected to close in the summer of 2021 and Columbia said the deal is immediately accretive.

By acquiring Green Leaf, Columbia said it substantially expands its footprint and operating scale in the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic. It adds roughly 400,000 ft of cultivation and production capacity, four operating dispensaries and six undeveloped, but permitted dispensaries, in key limited license markets. It also brings vertical integration in PA and MD and immediately positions Columbia Care as a leading wholesaler.

USP

“Strain names are absolutely misleading with considerable variation in the same cannabinoid content among different specimens of the same strain. You can get the same color and the same smell, but actually levels of the THC and CBD and some of the other compounds could be quite different,” says Robin Marles, Ph.D., chair of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Botanical Dietary Supplements and Herbal Medicines Expert Committee.

USP has assembled an expert panel of clinicians, scientists and industry representatives from around the world to provide necessary information and guidance on critical quality attributes, including recommendations for naming , all laid out in an article in the Journal of Natural Products, Cannabis Inflorescence for Medical Purposes: USP Considerations for Quality Attributes.

In Other News

cbdMD, Inc. ( NYSE: YCBD) announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. Net sales increased by 77% year-over-year to a record of $41.9 million in fiscal 2020, from $23.6 million in fiscal 2019. Net income attributable to common shareholders for fiscal 2020 was approximately $12.2 million, or $0.28 per share, as compared to a net loss for fiscal 2019 of approximately $50.4 million, or $2.82 per share. The increase in fiscal 2020 was principally attributable to a decrease of approximately $29.8 million in the non-cash contingent liability which is associated with earnout shares which may be issued under the terms of the December 2018 acquisition of Cure Based Development (which owned the cbdMD brand).

The Daily Hit: December 22, 2020 on Green Market Report.