Constellation Brands, maker of the big name beers Corona and Modelo, announced last week that they will be upping their stakes in Canopy Growth.
Canopy Growth is Canada’s largest medical cannabis producer that focuses on research and product development, it is also the first publicly traded cannabis company. Last October, Constellation Brands bought a 9.9 percent stake in Canopy but it included a deal for more investment opportunities in the future. Last month, they decided to increase their share by an additional $4 billion.
In total, Constellation now owns 38 percent of Canopy but they’ve been presented with the opportunity to purchase more than 50 percent in the coming years. “Over the past year, we’ve come to better understand the cannabis market, the tremendous growth opportunity it presents, and Canopy’s market-leading capabilities in this space,” said Rob Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands.
Since the merger, Canopy Growth’s shares have seen a spike of 30.4 percent while shares of Constellation Brand fell 6.1 percent. Each closed respectively at $32.11 and $208.28 per share. Constellation likely sees the drop as a small road bump on their investment journey in an industry they (and most people) believe will be completely legal soon. They also dismissed concerns about the Canadian cannabis industry being more hyped up than it’s actually worth.
Two products that Constellation found the most interest in are cannabis-based beverages and sleep aids. They probably won’t be offering any cannabis drinks in the United States anytime soon, but they’re hoping to launch in Canada as early as next year.
Looking at medical cannabis edibles, we should take into account the latest decisions of both California and Spain, making CBD edibles partly illegal, until it properly regulated. While the legal situation is not the same, the problem of unregulated markets keep a lot of investors away from medical cannabis businesses, in fear of unexpected regulation changes. Others, choose to buy in while the market is still cheap (others claim it to be a bubble already, but most agree that it will grow, a lot) and use their political influence on writing more comfortable regulations.
