Village Farms International has closed the previously announced transaction to privatize the majority of its fresh produce business, allowing the company to fully focus on its cannabis business.
Under the terms of the deal announced last month, Village Farms will privatize its Texas-based, 40-acre Marfa II and 40-acre Fort Davis greenhouse assets, all of its produce-related intellectual property, with the exception of the Village Farms name, and transfer all of its produce distribution facilities, employees and operational control of these facilities to Vanguard Food.
Village Farms is set to receive 37.9% of the initial common equity units of Vanguard, along with $40 million in cash.
The deal leaves Village Farms as a cannabis-first company with 160 acres of greenhouse facilities and export sales and Netherlands operating assets. The company said it will maintain an incremental upside opportunity through its ownership interest in Vanguard.
“Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Village Farms. For the past eight years we have carefully built our cannabis business based upon our learnings from over 35 years in controlled environment agriculture, and now we are ready to move forward independently from produce. We have established an immensely talented team of cannabis leaders across the organization, and I look forward to watching more of our accomplishments unfold together as we invest more time and resources to become one of the world’s largest and most respected cannabis operators," said Village Farms CEO Michael A. DeGiglio.
