MAPS Job Cuts.
It is being reported that cannabis tech company, Weedmaps (MAPS), is cutting up to 25% of their employees. The company stated that most of these job cuts came last week. This isn't the first time this year that MAPS has had to make job cuts; back in August, the company laid off 10% of its workforce. This recent cut comes only a month after CEO Chris Beal stepped down and Doug Francis, MAPS co-founder, took control on an interim basis. "The decision to eliminate these positions was a very difficult one, but it is necessary in order to drive line of sight to profitability and positive cash flow in 2023," Francis told Insider in an emailed statement. "I very much realize the difficulty this creates for the impacted employees."
SAFE AINT LOOKING SO HOT.
We have talked about SAFE Banking a lot in the past years and the odds of it getting passed just to be shut out. Recently, we have become more optimistic that it could get passed, not that it will get passed, due to the fact that Republicans will take over the House in the 2023 Congress, and the Congressional Democrats don't want it to look like they did nothing on the topic of cannabis while they had control. There were rumors that SAFE could be part of the NDAA, but SAFE was not included in it when it was released Tuesday night, meaning that “at least” one Democratic senator “had a problem” with the reform as well. Senator McConnel hit the Senate floor on Wednesday, bragging about the actions taken not to include cannabis language in the NDAA. “Just as Republicans insisted, just as our service members deserve, this NDAA is not getting dragged down by unrelated liberal nonsense,” McConnell said. “Good smart policies were kept in and unrelated nonsense like easier financing for illegal drugs was kept out.” There is still time to pass SAFE as a stand-alone bill, but the odds of it getting done definitely got worse over the last 48 hours.
Jushi Closing $69M Debt Financing.
Jushi Holdings Inc. (JUSHF) announced today the closing of its previously announced private offering of ~$69M aggregate principal amount of its 12% second lien notes and detached warrants to purchase up to approximately 16M of the Company’s subordinate voting shares at an exercise price of $2.086. The Company used the gross proceeds from the Offering of $69M, together with approximately $9M of cash on hand, to repurchase and redeem all of its outstanding existing 10% senior secured notes due January 2023 and pay accrued interest, fees and expenses. The Company has also received subscriptions for an additional $5M to be closed at a later date. The Notes will mature on December 7, 2026, will bear interest of 12.0% per annum, payable in cash quarterly, and will be guaranteed by certain of the Company’s direct and indirect domestic subsidiaries and secured by second priority liens on certain assets of the Company and certain of the Company’s direct and indirect domestic subsidiaries. In connection with the Offering, the purchasers of the Notes also received four-year Warrants at 50% coverage with an expiry date of December 7, 2026, at an exercise price per share equal to US$2.086.
