Boston, MA – Burns & Levinson has completed the sale of client UL Holdings, Inc. (Urbn Leaf), a leading California cannabis retailer, with Harborside, Inc. (CSE: HBOR), (OTCQX: HBORF). The Urbn Leaf acquisition, which was announced on November 29, 2021, closed on March 1, 2022. Ed Schmults, the CEO of Urbn Leaf, has been appointed as CEO and will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.
The Burns & Levinson deal team was led by senior partner Frank A. Segall, chair of the firm’s Business Law and Cannabis Business & Law Advisory Groups, with assistance from partners Alison Harrall and Bryan Natale and associate Gustav Stickley. As one of the first major corporate law firms to enter the cannabis space nearly 10 years ago, Burns & Levinson is one of the leading law firms closing M&A deals in the cannabis space on a national basis.
“It is an honor to work with Urbn Leaf and its talented management team on this important deal in the cannabis industry and we are thrilled that CEO Ed Schmults will lead the growth of the combined entities,” said Segall. “We look forward to continuing our work with him and the company as they build a West Coast cannabis powerhouse in the world’s largest legal cannabis market.”
“Frank and the Burns & Levinson team were true partners with us on this long and complex transaction. Their team was smart, thoughtful and very responsive and was an essential part of our ability to successfully conclude this transaction. They helped steer us through some tough negotiations,” said Schmults.
Harborside will officially be renamed StateHouse Holdings Inc. shortly after the closing of its acquisition of LPF JV Corporation(Loudpack), a leading manufacturer, cultivator and distributor of award-winning cannabis brands in California, which was announced at the same time as the Urbn Leaf acquisition. The Loudpack acquisition is expected to close on or around March 15, 2022.
Once both acquisitions are completed, StateHouse will be the largest and most developed vertically-integrated cannabis platform in the state of California with: 15 retail locations across key urban areas of California; nine popular brands, including top-five ranked brands in the pre-roll, edible and value flower segments; 230,000 square feet of greenhouse cultivation space with additional expansion capacity of over 100,000 square feet of canopy; and the highest revenue and brand market share among its publicly-listed California peers.
Burns & Levinson was one of the first major corporate law firms in the U.S. to develop a cannabis business practice, and has been advising cannabis businesses, entrepreneurs and investors across the country for nearly a decade. The firm has unrivaled experience in cannabis and hemp/CBD business formation and corporate structuring, private placements, venture capital, M&A, securities, banking issues, fund formation, debt and equity financing, restructuring and receiverships, real estate acquisitions and leasing, intellectual property protection, 280E taxation issues, and cannabis litigation. The firm is well-known for its role in the cannabis banking industry and is among the top law firms in the country handling M&A and high-level corporate and financing deals in the private and public markets in the cannabis market.
About Burns & Levinson LLP
At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with over 125 lawyers in Boston, Providence and London. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, cannabis, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com. Our cannabis industry blog can be found at www.cannabusinessadvisory.com.
