Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. So we
Speaker 1: did see some gains and movement, actually wide swing, about
Speaker 1: a six or seven percent swing in cannabis stocks today
Speaker 1: as the US House of Representatives is expected to approach
Speaker 1: a vote on a bill that would decriminalize marijuana. And
Speaker 1: keeping with that, we also got a financial update on
Speaker 1: one of the companies in the space we're talking about,
Speaker 1: Truly Cannabis out this morning. Fourth quarter revenue inline adjusted
Speaker 1: EBITDA a miss and the company's forecast mr analyst forecast
Speaker 1: based on Bloomberg data. The stock, we did see some
Speaker 1: movement in it as well, finishing kind of unchanged on
Speaker 1: the day after an earlier rally. Yeah, a little bit
Speaker 1: of allatility when it comes to cannabis stocks. I think
Speaker 1: that's an understatement over the last year. Kim Rivers is
Speaker 1: CEO of Truly. If she joins us on the phone
Speaker 1: from for via zoom excuse me from Tallahassee, Florida. Kim,
Speaker 1: good to chat with you again. Um, let's start with
Speaker 1: the quarter and then we'll move into the legislation that's well,
Speaker 1: perhaps making its way through Congress because we've we've seen
Speaker 1: this story before. UM fourth quarter earnings reporting record revenue
Speaker 1: of ninety eight million dollars, up eight percent year over year. UM,
Speaker 1: give us your takeaway from the quarter. Yeah, well, first
Speaker 1: of all, thank you so much for having me and UM,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a phenomenal quarter for truly, I'm
Speaker 1: really proud of our team. UM of course ended the
Speaker 1: year up eighty percent, following UM a year of a
Speaker 1: hundred and five percent growth the year before, so two
Speaker 1: consecutive years of just of just you know, really incredible
Speaker 1: incredible growth top line bottom line finished UM ibadad which
Speaker 1: again this is the strongest in the in the industry. UM.
Speaker 1: We of course completed the largest cannabis acquisition to date,
Speaker 1: closing our acquisition of Harvest Health and Recreation in October.
Speaker 1: So how much remind me how that was? For that
Speaker 1: was UM, well, it's the headline number was two was
Speaker 1: two billion. UM. We did to share exchange ratio, so
Speaker 1: it ended up coming in UM a bit under that
Speaker 1: given the given the as you mentioned, volatility in the market,
Speaker 1: UM coming into your d um so and it took
Speaker 1: our portfolio from four states. UM and we entered in
Speaker 1: the to exiting the year with eleven states and an
Speaker 1: impressive retail leading network of a hundred and fifty nine
Speaker 1: store locations and cultivation and production um north of three
Speaker 1: point five billion square feet. So how has this story
Speaker 1: around and the reality in terms of the cannabis market?
Speaker 1: You know? Can I feel like we've been talking about
Speaker 1: it for several years, right, We've all been excited about it,
Speaker 1: UM waiting for more you know, kind of regulatory oversight,
Speaker 1: legitimization here. And it does feel like there was a
Speaker 1: momentum earlier in the day out of expectations that the
Speaker 1: House is expected to do a vote on a bill
Speaker 1: this week. Where are we in this process? You know,
Speaker 1: from where we've come over the last couple of years
Speaker 1: to where we are today? How would you describe it? Yeah? So,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's been of course, as as
Speaker 1: folks who have been following cannabis would I'm sure agree,
Speaker 1: a bit of a roller coaster. Um. If you know,
Speaker 1: if we're if we're really looking at the macro picture
Speaker 1: from a from a federal reform perspective, I want a
Speaker 1: caveat that heavily by saying that UM our business and
Speaker 1: other businesses like US and which our plant touching US
Speaker 1: operator operators. And that's an important distinction, um, because we
Speaker 1: are not able to list on the on the regular exchanges, right,
Speaker 1: We're not We're not able to list on the n
Speaker 1: y C or on the NASDACK And so it's always
Speaker 1: a little frustrating and interesting because you see big moves
Speaker 1: to the positive UM with companies that are quote cannabis companies,
Speaker 1: those are actually Canadian operators with Canadian operate operations um,
Speaker 1: and so they actually can't benefit from federal change UM
Speaker 1: in the in the near term. Um. Yeah, those are
Speaker 1: the stocks because they're the only stocks available on those
Speaker 1: exchanges that see the positive gains today. But still an
Speaker 1: indicator of kind of sentiment, right, like I mean, invest
Speaker 1: your sentiment comes from a lot of different places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: d percent, a hundred percent and so UM. What we
Speaker 1: see in the other caveat, I would say is that
Speaker 1: the state momentum has not slowed down. And to the
Speaker 1: fundamentals of our business when we talk about any percent
Speaker 1: revenue growth strong even on margins um you know, portfolio expansion, etcetera.
Speaker 1: That really is grounded in the state regulatory structure that
Speaker 1: is continuing to evolve in a real and meaningful way.
Speaker 1: Right Maryland right now is actually in session. Expect to
Speaker 1: build a pass with a follow up amendment to their
Speaker 1: to their constitution around recreational cannabis. Of course, all the
Speaker 1: talk out of New York and New Jersey, we've got
Speaker 1: Georgia who's about to launch a medical program. A number
Speaker 1: of Southern markets actually who are about to launch medical
Speaker 1: are in different varying stages of launching medical programs. So
Speaker 1: is that the growth is a medical or recreational Well,
Speaker 1: it's both, right, so I think, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: somewhat regionalized. And you know, we've articulated this regional hub strategy.
Speaker 1: That's one of the reasons you know in in Southern states, Um,
Speaker 1: you know we it is primarily launching medical programs to
Speaker 1: start Northeast and there are there's good penetration from a
Speaker 1: medical program perspective. So now it's just that that switchover
Speaker 1: to recreational. Um. Of course, outwest, Um, these are our
Speaker 1: legacy markets. They've been around and have both metal cool
Speaker 1: and recreational sales for over a decade. So there is
Speaker 1: varying parts of the country that are in various stages.
Speaker 1: But to get back to your question on federal change,
Speaker 1: I think the thought process was with the Democrats uh,
Speaker 1: coming into into the majority in Congress, and of course
Speaker 1: with the presidency, the thought was that there would be
Speaker 1: meaningful change more quickly. Um. You know post election, Uh,
Speaker 1: you saw stocks and rally around that that sentiment, if
Speaker 1: you will, um, and and the hopes that we would
Speaker 1: see something more meaningful quickly. Unfortunately that has not been
Speaker 1: the case. UM. You know. There have been a number
Speaker 1: of proposals that have come forward, but they haven't been
Speaker 1: able to get traction in both houses. UM. The More Act,
Speaker 1: as an example, which would expect to be voted on
Speaker 1: again on Friday, has already passed the House previously. UM.
Speaker 1: I would expect for it to have sound optimistic, Well,
Speaker 1: I expected to pass again. I think the issue is
Speaker 1: is that it's just as in the Senate right in
Speaker 1: terms of whether or not we're going to see the
Speaker 1: ability to coalesce and reach a compromise that that can
Speaker 1: pass both houses. All right, we gotta run. Kim, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Kim Rivers. She's the chief executive officer
Speaker 1: of Truly via Zoom from Tallahassee