Specialist
Former C-level executive at Aurora Cannabis Inc.
Agenda
- North American market for cannabis, with an emphasis on trends in Canada
- Competitive landscape across manufacturers in Canada, with a focus on Aurora Cannabis
- Potential for M&A in the Canadian market
- Regulation outlook in the US
- Outlook for Canada in 2019, and how this might read through to the US in the future
Questions
1.
How is the legislation developing in Canada? How has that impacted your view of the market and how is the competitive landscape evolving?
2.
Why can the US companies be profitable versus the Canadian companies? Is that specific to a market like California?
3.
You talked about the US companies being nimbler than the Canadian companies, having that large amount of fixed costs and being more like a pharmaceutical company in terms of the facilities. Can you discuss the extraction and refining techniques? Are they very different in these pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities you mentioned?
4.
You mentioned that you feel these supply bottlenecks and the shortage in Canada will level out in a 1-2-year span. What’s bringing it to that level out point? Are there more efficient manufacturing operations?
5.
Given the current environment, you mentioned that a lot of the Canadian companies are looking internationally. If we were to keep Canada in a bubble, is the market currently big enough for all these large players to be sustainable and eventually hit profitability through more efficient operations and manufacturing processes?
6.
You talked about those first strategies around how these companies are looking at gaining market share). How long will it be before they start caring about profits? Why would you say that some don’t care at this point and are therefore hurting investors with these huge dilutions and transactions?
7.
In the current competitive environment, who is the furthest along in reaching that certain market share threshold that they’re able to look at how to expand margins across each segment? Who has the best strategy in approaching this balance?
8.
You talked about how the US companies are better positioned from a profitability standpoint. What’s the ability for them and these companies to expand internationally, while they wait to go across state lines?
9.
Are any more traditional players that have used this CBD [cannabidiol] route to promote branding, within the US bucket? Are they looking to expand into Europe and internationally or are we still in the infancy stage?
10.
You mentioned partnerships such as Constellation Brands and Canopy. What has evolved since cannabis has been legalised, and how has that impacted alcoholic beverage consumption? How will these partnerships between cannabis companies and beverage companies evolve, and what is the potential within that space?
11.
What has developed in the California market, and what can we take away from that market to better understand what a federally legalised US market could be?
12.
What are the emerging subsectors within the cannabis industry? What is everyone already turning their eyes to, in terms of further M&A in the space or disruptors?
13.
Are there any particular business models that players in this industry are following, that strike you as attractive models to follow – either by being entirely vertically integrated, or specialising in a particular space, or anything else?
14.
Is there anything else that is important for us to walk away with, or do you have any final comments?
