Aurora Cannabis CEO says open to more M&A deals after upbeat Q2

By Ankit Kumar

(Reuters) – Canada’s Aurora Cannabis Inc would be open to undertake more merger and acquisition deals in the future to expand its medical cannabis business, the company’s chief executive said on Friday.

The upbeat comments followed the cannabis producer’s surprise second-quarter core profit, helped by cost saving measures it had been taking since early 2020. 

“The net cash position gives us the opportunity to do M&A,” CEO Miguel Martin told Reuters in an interview.

The company will likely focus on acquiring medical assets or medical infrastructure – “something that’s additive to medical would be more interesting to us than maybe others,” he added.

In its earnings release late on Thursday, Aurora said it has about C$310 million ($232 million) of cash, including C$65 million of restricted cash as of Feb. 8.

In August last year, the company acquired a controlling interest in agricultural company Bevo Agtech for C$45 million.

“I think the type of M&A we would do would be consistent with what you saw with Bevo, predictable profitable… steady business,” Martin said.

The company which draws majority of its sales from its medical cannabis business, posted an adjusted core profit of C$1.4 million compared with analysts’ expectations of core loss of C$3.9 million. 

(This story has been corrected to change the currency to the Canadian dollar from the U.S. dollar in paragraph 5)

(Reporting by Ankit Kumar; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)