Ex-Hooters Franchisee Plans to Raise Up to $172.5M to Enter Cannabis Industry

January 09, 2020

A former hedge fund manager, Hooters franchise owner and blueberry farm president hopes to raise up to $172.5 million to enter the cannabis industry.

William F. “Mickey” Harley III of Massapequa is chief executive of Woodbury-based “blank check” company Greenrose Acquisition Corp., which filed for an initial public offering to raise the capital.

…

Alon Kapen, a securities lawyer at Uniondale-based Farrell Fritz, said the cannabis business is attracting attention despite its illegal status under federal law.

“There’s a lot of momentum in this industry,” he said. “A lot of people are identifying this as a tremendous opportunity, but it’s not without risk.”

…

Kapen said that stricter SEC regulations, including some that he deems overly burdensome, have made blank check companies more respectable.

“They were, quite frankly, being used as a vehicle for fraud,” he said of blank check companies. “In the real world, a bad reputation is hard to shake off.”

Kapen said that blank check companies accounted for about 20% of U.S. IPOs in 2018 and slightly less in terms of total dollars raised.

To read the full article, please click here.