Greenlane Holdings, which sells vaporizers and other cannabis accessories, priced shares at $17 Wednesday evening in advance of an expected public market debut Thursday. When it begins trading, Greenlane will rank among the first U.S. companies operating in the cannabis industry to list on a major American exchange.
Greenlane applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker GNLN. The company had originally expected its shares to trade at $14 to $16 per share. The company will offer 5.3 million shares, and selling stockholders will offer and additional 750,000. Cowen and Canaccord Genuity will underwrite the transaction.
Though a number of cannabis companies already trade on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange, they only do business in Canada. Greenlane, a distributor of other companies' products to retail outlets and the operator of several prominent direct-to-consumer e-commerce sites, primarily operates in the U.S.
In its prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Greenlane reported net sales of $178.9 million in 2018, more than double the $88.3 million it reported the year before. Greenlane said a significant portion of those sales came from a select few suppliers ー about 16 percent of net sales in 2018 came from Pax products, and 37 percent from Juul, the vape company Pax spun off in 2017. Greenlane said it sells to 6,600 businesses, including smoke shops and chain retail stores.
Greenlane's listing is generating excitement among potential investors because it's the closest many of them can get, MarketWatch reported, to investing in a U.S. cannabis company on a U.S. exchange. Plant-touching companies, like California-based MedMen for example, are forbidden from listing in the U.S. because of federal laws prohibiting cannabis. But Greenlane's ancillary ー or hands-off-the-plant ー model means it's totally legit.
Greenlane is positioned to take advantage of e-cigarette, hemp, and cannabis markets ー lucrative areas with plenty of their own regulatory hurdles.
Well Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog estimated the e-cigarette and vape industry generated $6.6 billion in revenue globally in 2018, CNBC reported. The hemp and CBD markets, after passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, are projected to reach about $22 billion by 2022, according to the Brightfield Group. Additionally, spending in global cannabis is projected to reach $31.3 billion by 2022, according to a report by Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics.
The challenges facing the three sectors are all different. Cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, and intensively regulated in states where it is legal. E-cigarettes, while legal, are subject to increasingly strict regulation on sales and marketing from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Outgoing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb pushed for new regulations on vape products to curb what the agency described as "epidemic" levels of teen vaping. Hemp, also legal, is unregulated, and the FDA scheduled the first public hearing on CBD, a compound derived from hemp and cannabis, for next month, which could prove decisive for companies using CBD in their consumer products.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
