Gleiss Lutz advises Curaleaf on the acquisition of a majority stake and a strategic partnership with Four 20 Pharma

​A Gleiss Lutz team has advised Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., a leading U.S. provider of consumer products in cannabis, and its European holding company Curaleaf International Holdings Limited, on the acquisition of a 55 per cent stake and strategic partnership with Four 20 Pharma GmbH, a fully EU GMP and GDP licensed German manufacturer and distributor of medical cannabis.

The partnership positions Curaleaf in the high-growth German market. Germany currently represents the largest medical cannabis market in Europe, with a total addressable market of over EUR 200 million in 2022 and expected to grow to nearly EUR 1 billion by the end of 2024 via adult-use legalization, which is slated to begin in late 2023 or early 2024.

Curaleaf Holdings is a leading international provider of consumer products in cannabis, listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. The Company and its brands, including Curaleaf and Select, provide industry-leading service, product selection and accessibility across the medical and adult-use markets. In the United States, Curaleaf currently operates in 22 states with 136 dispensaries, 26 cultivation sites, and employs over 5,700 team members. Curaleaf International is the largest vertically integrated cannabis company in Europe with a unique supply and distribution network throughout the European market.

Four 20 Pharma, headquartered in Paderborn, Germany, is a leading, fully EU-GMP and GDP licensed European producer and distributor of medical cannabis. The company is among the largest cannabis operators in Germany, with a greater than 10 per cent market share.

The following Gleiss Lutz team advised Curaleaf in the transaction: Dr Martin Viciano Gofferje (partner), Dr Micha Pfarr (counsel, both lead), Dr Christoph Meissner, Dr Pirmin Schreiner (all Berlin), Nikolas Frey, Oliver Wolf (both Stuttgart), Dr Mathias Boas-Knecht (Hamburg, all Corporate/M&A), Dr. Enno Burk (counsel), Dr. Xiao Chen (both Healthcare Regulatory), Dr. Rut Steinhauser (partner), Josefine Chakrabarti, Dr. Merve Sürücü (all labour/employment, all Berlin), Dr. Stefan Mayer (partner), Dr. Dominik Monz (both tax, Frankfurt), Dr Jacob von Andreae (partner), Aylin Hoffs, Vivien Etzkorn (all foreign investment control, Düsseldorf), Dr Johannes Hertfelder (partner), Rhued Gaiser (both competition/antitrust, Stuttgart), Frank Schlobach (partner), Dr Katja Lehr (counsel, both finance, Frankfurt), Dr Alexander Molle (partner), Jan Hinrichs (both IP/IT, Berlin), Dr Manuel Klar (Munich), Simon Wegmann (Berlin, both data protection).

Gleiss Lutz regularly advises on transactions in the medical cannabis sector, e.g. US investor Measure 8 Ventures on the seed financing for cannabis startup Bloomwell Group.