OUR 9TH YEAR OF PROVIDING PROPRIETARY CAPITAL MARKETS INTELLIGENCE ON THE CANNABIS / HEMP / PSYCHEDELIC SECTORS

Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers & Acquisitions Summary

Each week, Viridian publishes insights and analysis on completed M&A transactions in the prior week. Our analysis includes:

    • M&A Market Commentary
    • Public and Private Companies
    • Buyers & Sellers
    • YTD M&A Analysis
    • M&A by Industry Sector
    • Deal Structure and Valuation Analysis
    • Pending Deal Risk Arb Analysis
    • Valuation Gap Analysis

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Transaction Activities

Week ended 02/17/2023

  • Two M&A transactions closed this week for total consideration of $45M compared to four transactions for $68.5M in the prior year.

 

YTD Activities

  • Twenty-one transactions totaling $195.1M have closed YTD, compared to thirty-four transactions for $1,342.4M last year.
  • The 2023 YTD average transaction size of $9.28M and the 33% of total consideration accounted for by the U.S. are both the lowest in recent years.
  • We believe the likelihood of relatively sizeable public/public M&A transactions has increased significantly based on the low trading multiples of tier 2 and 3 MSOs and SSOs, particularly those perceived to be cash flow pressured.

Pending Risk Deal Arb Analysis

    • The Cresco/Columbia deal spread widened by 2000bp to 68.0% on 2/17/23, a record level that signals increasing market fears that this transaction will not close as presently structured. An unannualized rate of return of 68% for a less than six-month investment seems too good to be true. Will this transaction fall apart or be recut somehow? What are we missing here?

   

Valuation Gap Analysis

  • The valuation gap widened slightly to 2.02 on 2/17/23 but remained close to the lowest measure since we began tracking this measure and 120 bps lower than its 52-week average. The valuation gap is the difference between the EV/NTM EBITDA multiple for the largest MSOs and the multiple for the less than $300M market cap group, which are their primary targets.
  • This measure has been a significant driver of M&A activity since a larger gap creates an opportunity for more accretive transactions. The gap tends to increase in improving markets while declining in retreating markets to the greater trading liquidity of the larger companies.

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