Business News Digest

Featured Article

This month's featured article discusses the M&A Consumer Products Market.

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Consumer Products M&A—How to Come Out Looking Great

As the M&A market enjoys unprecedented levels of activity, no sector has been more volatile than consumer products. With changing buying patterns, wild swings in consumer spending, and attitudes shifting from fear to wild optimism, the sector has been impacted by recent events in profound ways. Throw in a healthy fear of increasing taxes, and you have the recipe for a wild and very busy ride.

Venable's Corporate Group Deal Highlights

Venable represented GH Group, Inc. (“Glass House”), one of the fastest-growing vertically integrated cannabis and hemp companies in the U.S., on the completion of its business combination (the “Transaction”) with Mercer Park Brand Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), to create Glass House Brands Inc., with the intent to focus on branded product businesses in cannabis and/or cannabis-adjacent industries.

Pursuant to the terms of the merger, the combined company has planned expansion to reach more than 6 million square feet of greenhouse cultivation capacity, helping cement Glass House’s position as the state's largest cannabis producer and retailer and the largest cannabis producer in the United States by a wide margin. The merger also makes Glass House the latest cannabis producer to list on Canada's NEO exchange.

In addition to its current footprint, Glass House has entered into an agreement to merge with 17 retail licensed entities from Element 7, LLC (Element 7), a retail-focused cannabis company with a proven track record in winning licenses. These licenses are expected to bring the company’s retail footprint to a total of 23 storefront retail locations by the end of the first half of 2022, representing the highest statewide store count of any single California cannabis operator.

The Venable team was led by Matthew Portnoff, Dan Straga, and Friedemann Thomma. Venable will continue to represent Glass House going forward.

The merger was covered in numerous publications, including Yahoo! Finance.

Venable assisted Darby International Capital LLC in its sale of Tabacarcen S.A. Tababela Cargo Center, the import-export logistics operator at the Quito International Airport in Ecuador, to Corporación Omni Invest Omninvest S.A. The deal, structured as stock purchase, closed on July 2, 2021.

The Venable team was led by Philip von Mehren, who was assisted by Blair Springer and Maggie Goff. Michael Bloom, Friedemann Thomma, Becca Chappell, Christopher Davidson, and Elizabeth Stieff also contributed to the effort.