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Convenience store giant to boost stake in marijuana retailer Fire & Flower

April 25, 2022
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Multinational convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard plans to boost its stake in major Canadian cannabis retailer Fire & Flower to roughly 35%.

Couche-Tard, which owns Circle K convenience stores, intends to acquire more than 8.2 million Fire & Flower shares by exercising warrants two days after the Ontario-headquartered company’s annual earnings release on April 26.

By exercising the warrants, Quebec-based Couche-Tard will increase its stake in Fire & Flower “by approximately 14.49% to approximately 35.32%,” according to a Wednesday news release.

Couche-Tard made a strategic investment in Fire & Flower in 2019, exercised share purchase warrants in 2020 and 2021, and lent up to 30 million Canadian dollars ($24 million) to Fire & Flower in late 2021.

The company held 21.5% of Fire & Flower shares as of December 2021, according to a regulatory filing.

Fire & Flower trades as FAF on the Toronto Stock Exchange and plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange in the U.S.

The retailer has a licensing deal with a U.S. cannabis store operator and says it “is poised to expand into the United States when permitted.”

Couche-Tard trades on the TSX as ATD.