Acreage Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX: ACRDF, ACRHF) announced its subsidiary, High Street Capital Partners was selling Acreage Florida, Inc. to Red White and Bloom Brands, Inc.  (OTCQX: RWBYF) for $60 million. Acreage Florida is licensed to operate medical marijuana dispensaries, a processing facility, and a cultivation facility in the state of Florida. The deal also includes the sale of property in Sanderson, Florida. The stock was dropping over 6% to lately sell at $7.39.

The transaction will be an up-front cash payment of $5 million upon execution of the definitive agreement and an additional $20 million in cash, $7 million in the buyer’s common stock, and $28 million in promissory notes upon closing the transaction. Acreage said it expects to close the deal during the second quarter of 2021.

Brad Rogers, Chief Executive Officer of RWB, said, “Our core strategy has always been to focus on a limited number of markets within which to operate at scale, and Florida has always been one of those targeted markets. Today we have our path to entry into the third-largest market by revenue in the US and are excited with what we can do with the brands we have amassed as well as the skill to execute on our vision.” The company also recently announced an acquisition in Illinois, expanding its presence in the States with limited cannabis licenses. Upon closing of the deal, RWB will have a presence through licensed operations and/or the licensing of its brands in six states.

“The sale of our Florida operations is a significant step in our previously announced operating strategy to focus on those core markets that we believe will accelerate our path to profitability and position us for significant long-term growth and cash generation,” said Peter Caldini, Chief Executive Officer of Acreage Holdings. “The cash proceeds will significantly bolster our balance sheet and position us to accelerate our cultivation expansion projects and open additional dispensaries to support our growth into key adult-use cannabis states such as Illinois and New Jersey.”

Last summer, Acreage had announced it was scaling back from its initial plan to be the cannabis company in the most states to one that was more focused on core-markets in just nine states in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. The company said it currently has active operations and licenses in 13 states and continues to pursue divestitures of its remaining non-core state operations and licenses.