The bill coincides with a surge of interest in Pennsylvania among MSOs (multistate state operators).
Over the last six months, MSOs such as Verano Holdings Inc. (VRNO: $14.81), Terrascend Corp. (TER: $9.20), Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (TRUL: $34.23), Ayr Wellness Inc. (AYR.A: $33.00) and Cresco Labs Inc. (CL: $11.71) have spent around $600-million (U.S.) scooping up dispensaries in the state.
The average cost per dispensary is now about $30-million (U.S.). That is about five times the cost of a dispensary in neighbouring Ohio.
Fellow MSO Jushi Holdings Inc. (JUSH), down one cent to $5.40 on 152,500 shares, is also active in Pennsylvania -- home of 15 of its 24 nationwide dispensaries -- but today its news came from Nevada. Jushi is buying a dispensary in Las Vegas. It did not disclose a price tag.
The dispensary is part of a chain called The Apothecarium. This was founded by a group of cousins and friends in San Francisco in 2011, and had three California locations and one Nevada location as of early 2019, when it accepted a $73.7-million (U.S.) takeover offer from the above-mentioned Terrascend.
Terrascend closed the California side of the deal for $36.8-million (U.S.) in mid-2019. It seemed to struggle to secure regulatory approval in Nevada, and ultimately cancelled that side of the deal in early 2020, although it continued to license out the name The Apothecarium to the dispensary. Then Terrascend focused on opening The Apothecarium locations in California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, showing no interest in taking another crack at Nevada.
Jushi, meanwhile, had been sniffing around Nevada for years, initially through a 2019 management services agreement with local grower and processor Franklin Bioscience.
Franklin did not have any of its own dispensaries and instead stuck to the wholesale market.
In mid-2019, Jushi announced that it would buy Franklin for $9-million (U.S.). Like Terrascend, Jushi faced a lengthy regulatory wait, but stuck it out and finally closed the acquisition in April, 2021.
Now Jushi's goal in Nevada, through today's deal, is to acquire a dispensary and thus become vertically integrated (the industry term for having cultivation, processing and retail operations).
It did not even try to guess how long closing will take. Nor did it mention a purchase price tag.
For some context, the above-mentioned Verano Holdings is pursuing a separate acquisition in Nevada, buying a company with two dispensaries plus production and cultivation facilities for $29-million (U.S.). Verano announced this deal in July and (unsurprisingly) has yet to close it.