Green Growth wants Aphria and is willing to pay a hefty price to get it
The Ohio-based Schottenstein family made a fortune in retail. It then segued into marijuana, launching Green Growth, a new cannabis operation that doesn’t have to be concerned about having deep pockets. Now, the company has its eyes set on Canadian cannabis producer Aphria and is making a hostile bid to take over the company.
Green Growth has submitted an all-stock bid for Aphria, asserting that the company is worth around $1.46 billion. It believes that, despite relative success, Aphria has a “need for seasoned and accomplished management.”
The value assessed represents an overage of 46% above what Aphria’s price closed at on December 24. However, Aphria executives see things differently. They say the offer “significantly undervalues” the company and that it will form a separate committee to review the bid.
The CEO of Green Growth, Peter Horvath, asserted, “What we’ve learned about our own story is that there’s a real demand and need for seasoned and accomplished management in the industry. The essence, the idea here, is to take talent and capabilities and join them with [Aphria’s] team and leverage them across multiple geographies.”
Green Growth and Aphria have been working together since last year. They launched a joint effort to receive a medical marijuana cultivation license in Ohio, but that application was denied.
After the news broke that Green Growth was looking at the takeover, Aphria, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, saw its stock price jump 26%. As of this writing, it is up 11.67% in the past 24 hours.
