Hightimes Holding Corp., owner of High Times magazine, is purchasing 13 California dispensaries from Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. The stock-and-cash deal totals $80 million, building off retail assets that Hightimes acquired in January.
And similar to those earlier deals, rooted in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, this California transaction will see all 13 planned and operational dispensaries converted to the High Times brand. Hightimes Holding Corp. expects to close this deal by the end of June. Harvest locations in California include: Napa, Venice and Palm Springs.
“We’ve long supported Harvest and the other cannabis-retail-trailblazers as they pushed forward despite changing legislation, insurmountable licensing fees, political stigma and, frankly, through a process that was designed to be difficult,” Adam Levin, Hightimes Holding Corp. executive chairman, said in a public statement. “We have enormous respect for the Harvest brand and look forward to ushering in the next generation of retail experience with Harvest as a significant shareholder in our company.”
Hightimes Holding Corp. is in the middle of a Reg+ IPO, a type of pre-public capital raise that allows investors to maintain liquidity. The company plans to list on the OTC markets under the ticker symbol “HTHC.”
In January, Hightimes expounded on its plan to integrate its decades-long publishing history and Cannabis Cup event management experience with the burgeoning state-legal retail sector. CEO Stormy Simon highlighted the Cannabis Cup legacy in particular, pointing out that retail shelf space will allow the winners of those events to be placed more visibly in the consumer market. At the time, she also announced that California cannabis executive Paul Henderson, who headed Grupo Flor for two years, would head up the company’s retail efforts as president of Hightimes Holding Corp.
