4Front Ventures president Kris Krane is also on the NCIA’s board of directors
In a high-profile deal expected to close by February, Boston-based 4Front Ventures will merge with Vancouver-based Cannnex Capital Holdings Inc., which operates under the name Northwest Cannabis Solutions, for $450 million in stock.
Cannex (OTC: CNXXF) agreed to issue stock in a way that gives majority control of the combined company to 4Front, which will become a public company once the stock sells on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE). The transaction entails 4Front being granted shares of Cannex that will be issued next year at a rate of 1.75 of 4Front shares for every one share of Cannex. Based on the value of comparable stocks already traded on the CSE, the shares should sell as long as they’re offered at an attractive price.
Cannex shareholders are expected to vote by the end of February on the proposal to issue more stock, marking the close of the transaction.
“The synergies are perfect,” 4Front president and co-founder Kris Krane tells Freedom Leaf. “Cannex will take over cultivation and production—that’s their competency. That’s the hardest part. Our expertise is in retail sales and capital markets. The pieces fit perfectly.”
4Front co-founder and CEOJosh Rosen will be CEO of the combined company while Cannex CEO Anthony Dutton will focus on capital markets and business development.
Kris Krane’s Impressive Cannabis Resumé
For Krane, who will be president of the combined company, the merger marks the latest development in his career in cannabis. He was associate director of NORML from 2000-2005 and executive director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) from 2006–2009.
“I’ve always seen my role in the industry as an extension of my advocacy work,” Krane notes, “not an alternative to it.”
When Krane left SSDP in 2009, he moved to Oakland and launched CannBe with Harborside Health Center’s Steve DeAngelo. For the next two years, CannBe replicated Harborside’s operating model with other dispensaries. Then, in 2011, John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, backed the launch of 4Front Ventures as a new management consulting company with Krane and Rosen at the helm.
“I’ve always seen my role in the industry as an extension of my advocacy work, not an alternative to it.”
After building up the business by helping clients secure dispensary licenses in some of the country’s most competitive markets, 4Front shifted its focus into cultivation and retail stores under their Mission brand in 2015. Currently, Mission has dispensaries in Chicago, IL; Allentown, PA; and Silver Spring/Glenmont, MD; as well as cultivation centers in Chicago and Worchester, MA. 4Front’s other dispensary brand Healthy Pharms Inc. has shops in Cambridge and Georgetown, MA.
Winning state, city and town approvals for dispensaries isn’t easy. But Krane believes support is building on the local level. “The opioid crisis has fueled interest, but there’s still a lot of misinformation about dispensaries,” he says. “Most of the concerns from towns center on security—that the dispensaries could be magnets for crime. We emphasize that the stores that use security partners are very professional. We show up not looking like pot dealers. Once we sit down and dispel the stereotypes, towns are more receptive.”
For Krane, 4Front reflects a lifetime of positive thinking about cannabis. “By demonstrating to the public that marijuana could be distributed in a way that’s professional and community focused,” he says, “it changes the public stereotypes of cannabis distribution from a street corner drug deal to a beautiful and well-run retail store.”
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The post Boston’s 4Front Ventures Looking Forward to Cannex Merger appeared first on Freedom Leaf.
Source: https://www.freedomleaf.com/4front-ventures-cannex-merger/
The post Boston’s 4Front Ventures Looking Forward to Cannex Merger was originally published to gigglesndimples.com
source https://gigglesndimples.com/2018/12/18/bostons-4front-ventures-looking-forward-to-cannex-merger/
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