Aphria, Tilray Deal Is a Bet on Euro Pot: Cannabis Weekly
Bloomberg 12/20/2020 Tiffany Kary
(Bloomberg) At first glance, Tilray’s deal with Aphria might look like a bid to create a Canadian heavyweight, or a move to gain a better foothold in the U.S.
But as the Italians say, “dietrologia” the surface explanation is never the real one. Much of the logic, it turns out, is rooted in Europe.
Tilray has a cultivation facility in Portugal, while Aphria has another in Germany plus a prescription business that’s connected to 13,000 German pharmacies and others throughout Europe. This allows for tariff-free cannabis for the European Union, which is a market that the companies are betting will liberalize quickly.