Canadian cannabis retailer High Tide buys $12.4 million majority stake in Blessed CBD

(A version of this story first appeared at MJBizDaily.)

Canadian cannabis retailer and e-commerce company High Tide acquired 80% of Blessed CBD – a U.K.-based, direct-to-consumer, hemp-derived CBD brand – in a deal worth slightly more than 9 million British pounds ($12.4 million).

The deal includes a three-year option to acquire the remainder of Blessed CBD.

High Tide is paying 4.9 million pounds worth of High Tide shares plus 4.2 million pounds in cash for Blessed, which is headquartered in Scotland.

Blessed makes CBD oils, creams, gummies, capsules and other products.

Vithurs Thiru, Blessed’s founder and chief executive officer, will join Hide Tide as senior manager of search.

“This acquisition marks our entry into the highly lucrative and rapidly-growing U.K. CBD space which we expect to serve as a launching pad for High Tide to further penetrate the E.U. market for hemp-derived CBD products,” High Tide President and CEO Raj Grover said in a release.

Calgary, Alberta-based High Tide has acquired a series of cannabis accessory and CBD e-commerce assets in the U.S. this year and intends to enter the U.S. retail cannabis market in the event of federal cannabis legalization.

High Tide recently ranked 82nd on Report on Business magazine’s 2021 ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies.

The company’s shares trade as HITI on the Nasdaq and the TSX Venture Exchange.