DISTRESSED WEED ASSETS: THE NEXT FRONTIER

In a WEEDWEEK EXCLUSIVE, I interviewed Joe Caltabiano, outgoing co-founder and president of Cresco Labs, the Chicago-based MSO.

• We discussed the Illinois market, where he sees opportunity and whether it was a mistake for Cresco to go public.
• Going forward, Caltabiano is excited to search for value in distressed assets:

“Some people, they may have a great license, but have been deploying money towards a part of their company that really doesn’t have the long term value. So you have to look at the core assets that you have within the company and sometimes divest or exit some of the other things. Occasionally from time to time people hang on to the wrong parts of their business or get married to the wrong parts of their business.Sometimes it takes an outsider coming in and looking at how to monetize a business in a different way.”

He’s not the only one thinking this way. Former MedMen CFO James Parker, who sued the company, is looking at distressed assets at his new firm Trava Capital.

• MJBiz also takes a broader look at the distressed assets opportunity.