Cannacurio #58: Who Are the Key Advisors for Cannabis M&A?

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In 2020, Cannabiz Media began investigating cannabis mergers and acquisitions as a by-product of license prosecution. Mergers and acquisitions are a key transaction as licenses change hands in these deals. Recently we wrote about which MSOs are leading the way in buying versus building cannabis businesses.

In this post, we want to share with you what we found out about who advised them. This data comes from our Cannabiz Intelligence™ Advisor Leaderboard:

methodology

We have researched the details of over 500 M&A transactions in the cannabis, hemp and by-products sectors. Where available, we have collected information about the legal and financial advisors who assisted the buyers and sellers.

Our research identified 133 companies that advised on 137 M&A transactions. This is a practical example as we could not recruit consultants for all deals. We welcome submissions.

Important Findings

• Canaccord topped the financial rankings and advised on 22 deals.
• Bennet Jones led the legal rankings and advised on 15 deals.
• Canaccord and Bennet Jones led the buy-side and sell-side deal counts.
• Canaccord was involved in $8.1 billion of transactions, while Bennet Jones acted as an advisor on $6.8 billion.

financial advisor

Canaccord Genuity is the financial leader and advises on 22 of the 137 deals. ATB was a distant second with 10 finishes. Canaccord is also a leader in both buy and sell side components.

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Canaccord is also a leader in both buy and sell side components.

legal advisor

On the legal side, half a dozen companies have advised on 10 or more deals. Of the top six companies, only Foley Hoag LLP (13) and Dorsey & Whitney (6) were based in the US.

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Bennet Jones led both the buy and sell side leaderboards.

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Total value of deals

Conclusion

Mergers and acquisitions are a recurring phenomenon in our market. At Cannabiz Media, we track license inventories as they move from company to company. As capital contracts, we see a pause in transactions and, as many have noted, many of the big deals are likely to close.

Second tier MSOs and single state operators could be the next wave of participants. Stay tuned as we will continue to track all of these transactions on our Cannabiz Intelligence platform.

author

Ed Keating is co-founder of Cannabiz Media and oversees the company’s data research and government relations efforts. He has spent his career working with and advising information companies on compliance issues. Ed has led product, marketing and sales while overseeing complex, multi-jurisdictional product lines in the securities, corporate, UCC, security, environmental and human resources markets.

Cannabiz Media customers can stay up to date on these and other new licenses through our newsletter, notification and reporting modules. Subscribe to our newsletter to get these weekly reports in your inbox. Or you can schedule a demo to learn more about how to access the Cannabiz media license database yourself to dig deeper into this data.

‍Cannacurio is a weekly column from Cannabiz Media featuring insights from the most comprehensive licensing data platform. Check out Cannacurio’s posts and podcasts for the latest updates and information.