Weed stocks: Cronos confirms talks with Marlboro maker Altria

A woman holds marijuana for sale at the MedMen store in West HollywoodThomson Reuters

• The cannabis producer Cronos Group confirmed Tuesday that it had held talks with the cigarette maker Altria about Altria taking a stake in the company.
• Cronos shares spiked more than 10% following the news. They gained about 11% on Monday, when the talks were first reported by Reuters.
• Watch Cronos trade live.

The cannabis producer Cronos was soaring early Tuesday, up more than 10%, after confirming it had held talks with Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, about Altria making an investment in the company.

“No agreement has been reached with respect to any such transaction and there can be no assurance such discussions will lead to an investment or other transaction involving the companies,” a Cronos press release sent out Tuesday said.

Cronos shares gained as much as 29% on Monday after Reuters reported that Altria was interested in a stake in the company. The stock closed Monday’s session up about 11% at $10.17 a share.

If a deal were to come to fruition, it wouldn’t be the first time a cigarette company has moved into the cannabis space. In June, the venture arm of the UK-based Imperial Brands invested in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a biotech company working on research into active compounds in the cannabis plant known as cannabinoids.

Cronos was up 31.38% this year before Tuesday’s gains.

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