Major marijuana multistate operator Curaleaf Holdings posted $345.3 million in net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of 1.5% over the same quarter the year before and 3.6% over the third quarter.
New York-based Curaleaf, which is the largest publicly traded marijuana operator by market capitalization, reported a $57.7 million net loss from continuing operations for the quarter ended Dec. 31.
Curaleaf’s full-year revenue was $1.35 billion, up 6% on a year-over-year basis, with an annual net loss of $290.3 million, a 23% improvement over 2022’s $376.9 million net loss.
In prepared remarks made during a Wednesday night earnings presentation, Curaleaf Executive Chair Boris Jordan suggested the company is focused on “new or forthcoming adult-use states such as New York, Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania and key European countries like Germany, the U.K. and Poland.”
Jordan cited a wholesale opportunity in New York for Curaleaf.
However, he called on New York’s Office of Cannabis Management “to do more to support the legal market with greater enforcement of illicit operators, which is paramount to creating the robust and safe marketplace we all want in the state.”
In neighboring New Jersey, Curaleaf increased wholesale sales by 24% sequentially, CEO Matt Darin said, “as our team was highly successful in getting our brands into new independent accounts that opened in the quarter.”
Curaleaf announced it was closing its Bellmawr, New Jersey, production facility in 2023, but Jordan said the company has since “decided to keep it and have reopened it and are fully stocking it now.”
In response to an analyst’s question, Jordan said Curaleaf’s New Jersey operations are “almost short, even with the large capacity we have coming out of our main grow at Winslow (New Jersey) and the Bellmawr grow, we’re still almost hand-to-mouth in terms of the capacity required for that market.”
Switching to Europe, Jordan hailed Germany’s recent cannabis legalization law, which is expected to boost the country’s existing medical marijuana market despite falling short of fully commercializing adult-use sales.
“I firmly believe that when this legislation is enacted, other nations such as France, Spain, Italy and (the) Czech Republic will follow up quickly now that Germany has paved the path,” Jordan said during his prepared remarks, citing Ukraine’s recent medical cannabis legalization.
Curaleaf moved from the Canadian Securities Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2023, and Jordan said that move has “opened the doors to U.S. and international (stock) custody solutions.”
“Specifically, we have been cleared for custody at BNY Mellon and State Street, two of the largest global custodians,” he continued.
Last week, Curaleaf competitor Trulieve Cannabis reported that it had reaped $113 million in tax refunds after challenging its tax bills under Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code.
During the Wednesday earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ed Kremer hinted that Curaleaf might be pursuing a similar strategy.
“Given recent developments, we continue to evaluate our stance on legal challenges to the application of 280E and more generally to the Controlled Substances Act as applied to state-legal operators,” Kremer said in prepared remarks.
“We will share more details with you when we have them.”
Curaleaf reported $91.8 million in cash on its balance sheet at the end of 2023, with total debt worth $587.8 million.
Solomon Israel can be reached at solomon.israel@mjbizdaily.com.
