Arizona-based Harvest Health & Recreation reached a binding agreement to acquire Verano Holdings of Chicago for $850 million, a deal that’s considered to be the largest acquisition inked in the U.S. cannabis industry to date.
The deal surpasses the previously largest U.S. acquisition in the cannabis industry – MedMen’s $682 million all-stock purchase of PharmaCann in October.
Upon closing, the all-stock deal with Verano will give Harvest one of the largest footprints among multistate cannabis operators with 123 dispensaries in 16 states.
Verano, which acquired a Massachusetts cannabis company in February, was attractive to Harvest Health because it has stakes in 10 operating facilities across the United States and more than 45 licenses under development.
Harvest trades on the Canadian Securities Exchange as HARV.