Staff
It’s time for your Daily Hit of cannabis financial news for February 10, 2020.
On The Site
CLS Holdings
While Planet 13 Holdings (CSE: PLTH) (OTCQX: PLNHF)reported that its January sales held strong and that January revenue was roughly 10% higher than the seasonally slow months of November and December. CLS Holdings USA, Inc. (OTCQB: CLSH)(CSE: CLSH) said it saw a drop in its January sales.
Still, the 2020 January sales were better than in 2019. Revenue increased 49% from last year’s $0.73 million to this year’s $1.5 million. The company also reported that its consolidated record gross margin was 52% compared to 39% in January 2019 for an increase of 33%. The company also reported a 136% increase in dispensary customers, from 10,908 (351 average per day) in January 2019 to a record 25,776 (831 average per day) in January 2020.
Investors in 2020
2019 was a rough year for cannabis. Stocks plummeted, just one hurdle of many in the year, and sent some potential investors running. Even big players Aurora Cannabis (ACB), Canopy Growth (CGC) (WEED), and Cronos Group (CRON) fell 52.7%, 32.6%, and 37.4%, respectively, as of a Market Realist article published last November.
Capital in cannabis seemed, and was, tight.
Green Market Report had the pleasure of catching up with Jon Trauben, a partner of Altitude Investment Management, to try and decipher exactly what investors are looking for before they put their coins into cannabis in 2020.
NCIA
Next week is the National Cannabis Industry Association’s first Northeast Cannabis Business Conference. This two-day event will be held in Boston on February 19-20 and features over 150 exhibitors and over 100 speakers.
As Massachusetts has the most advanced legal adult-use market, the Boston location is ideal for the cannabis community to meet and discuss the key topics concerning the industry. The agenda is also regionally focused to help those in the northeast corridor get more involved. Also, since this is a legal state, this expo floor will represent true buyers and sellers of products.
Legislation
2020 started with legislation siding entirely in favor of Cannabis throughout twelve states US (and the District of Columbia). Aside from full legalization, more than 75% of the United States of America have legalized (and decriminalized) Cannabis use. Whether that use is in the form of CBD, restricted to medicinal use, or completely without consequence, America’s legislation is changing rapidly.
The legalization of Cannabis has been a slow, agonizing, and long-overdue struggle that has finally started to see some quantifiable traction. Finally, the taboo haze that has encircled the use of Cannabis is lifted. For the first time in a long time, lawmakers are representing what the people want and what science supports concerning benefits and safety.
Illinois
Complaints from patients across the state prompted an advisory from the Illinois Department of Financial Professional Regulation for dispensary operations across the state on Friday. The complaint was directed at possible shortages of patients’ normal medical purchases, due to recreational sales.
New mandates from regulators state that a dispensary must leave a window open solely for medical sales. Dispensaries must not hold products back for recreational sales. Medical patients must be able to purchase 2.5 times the amount set by a dispensary, for any recreational sales. Cannabis supply for medical patients has eased somewhat, since the first of the year, in the Champaign – Urbana area of Illinois, as of this writing on February 7, 2020.
In Other News
Pyxus International, Inc. (NYSE: PYX) reported that its third-quarter sales and other operating revenues decreased by 30.7% to $363.3 million when compared to last year, due to a decrease in volume and average sale prices. The volume decrease was driven by flue-cured oversupply conditions, shipment timing, and the impact of Hurricane Florence and foreign tariffs in the U.S. Average sale price decrease was driven by a lower concentration of lamina in South American leaf product mix.
Gross profit as a percent of sales improved to 15.2% from 14.2% for the same period last year attributable to favorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations resulting in lower leaf green inventory prices in Africa and South America.
Selling, general, and administrative expense increased $4.2 million to $45.9 million when compared to last year mainly due to branding, marketing, and advertising expenses to support Figr cannabinoid brand growth and costs incurred to evaluate and develop plans for a potential partial monetization of interests in subsidiaries in the Other Products and Services segment.
Net loss attributable to Pyxus International, Inc. for the three months ended December 31, 2019, was $22.0 million.
