Broadcasting live to New York Bloomberg eleventh, Rio to Washington, d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg twelve, under It to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine, to the Country series Exam Channel one nineteen, and around the globe the Bloomberg Radio Plus Appen Bloomberg dot Com. This is taking Stock. I'm Kathleen Hayes. My co host Pim Fox is on assignment this afternoon. You know, in the private equity people start getting involved in an industry, it's got to be big and getting bigger.
We're gonna be speaking to Adam Bierman. He's co founder and CEO of Medmen, and private equity firm that is investing in the cannabis industry and advising and consulting potential investors in that industry as well. Now let's go to Charlie Pett He is in the newsroom with a Bloomberg Business flash, and I thank you very much, Kathleen Hayes. I'm looking at Green on the screen and the SMP five how at index that is on track for a
ten month high. Stocks are rallying as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen signals the economy is still strengthening enough to withstand gradual increases in borrowing costs, despite recent signs of slower job growth. For speech in Philadelphia carried live right here on Bloomberg Radio, well, the economy has made Greek stride towards the AFORMC subjective of maximum employment, somewhat list
progresses made toward our inflation objective. Inflation is whoren persistently below the FIDS goal of two over the past several years, even as the labor market strength and significantly, and the Fed chair said positive forces supporting jaw growth and higher inflation will still probably outweigh negative developments, calling additional gradual rate increases appropriate, without specifying their precise timing. SMP five hundred index up thirteen points at twelve pine of seven
tenths of one percent. Nav stack is up thirty six points, also a gain of seven tenths of one percent down Industrials up one thirty eight points, a gain of eight tenths of one percent. Brexit is back investors from Australia to Thailand ducking for cover. The pound tumbled. Currency volatility surged after two poles showed more Britain's favor of vote to leave the EU at a June twenty three referendum
than those who want to stay. Tenure down seven thirty second zeal there one point seven two percent, Gold up four fifty pounds to twelve forty seven, a gain of four tenths of one percent. Crude now up two point two percent, forty nine sixty seven of barrel to thirty two on Wall Street Now will look at other news from around the world. Thank you Charlie from the Bloomberg
News Room. I'm Raimi in Essencio. This news update is brought to you by Elbow Beach Bermuda in ocean front enclave of classic style and contemporary luxury, fifty acres of lush gardens and a private ribbon of pink sand beach. Go to Elbow Beach burm You to dot com for more details. Forecasters say threatening rains could cause serious flooding
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year alone. That's up from eighty six the year before. Speaking in Milwaukee, Police Chief Ed Flynn blames a spike on more lenient gun laws. Since it's been significant easier to procure firearms and sell them without background checks, we've had increases in gun related homicides, increases of non fatal shootings, increases in gun seizures, and increases in the percentage of
gun seas that are our crime. Guns officials say there were six hundred thirty five non fatal shootings and there's an increasing probability of stolen cars ending up in California. That's according to a report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. A new report which analyzed the number of thefts per population, says the Golden State is home to eight of the top ten u S hotspots for stolen vehicles in the country. That's higher than the New York and Washington regions, where
people rely more on mass transit. Global News twenty four hours a day, powered by our journalists in more than one fifty news bureaus around the world. From the Bloomberg News Room, I'm Rainey in essentio Charlie, and we thank you, and again recapping SMP five index heading for a ten month high and now at a gain of six tenths of one percent. I'm Charlie Public and that's a Bloomberg Business Flash June listening to taking Stock with pin Box
and Katholene Hays on Bloomberg Radio. As voters in more and more states embrace legalized marijuana sales, this industry is going from a small sort of curiosity to something that looks like a booming market that is here to stay. In fact, a study put out earlier this year suggests that the industry could grow to something like six point seven billion dollars this year in total sales. Someone who's not waiting to find out if it's here to stay or not, someone who's been in this business now since
two thousand seven, is Adam Bierman. He's co founder and CEO of med Men, and he joins us in Los Angeles. Adam, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me so. First of all, tell us about med Men private equity in cannabis sounds sounds bizarre, isn't it. It's been, Uh, it's been. It's been quite a road to get here. But um, that that is where we are. So met men actually started off as a management company, so we provide management services, not unlike those that are provided in
hospitality or gaming. Um. And then as of the beginning of this year, Uh, we started our private equity fund, so very algast hospitality. The fund makes investments in the space and the management company then operates those investments. So how did you get into this industry? Fell into it? Uh? You know, we live in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the epicenter for you know, the commercial legal commercialization of cannabis in the US and North America for that matter.
And um, we've had uh legal marijuana here sin And I was running a branding, design and construction company in the late two thousand's and I got a phone call from a lady who ran a was running a medical marijuana dispensary UM in Hollywood, and she wanted to hire that company to do work for her. And by the time I was done with that meeting, I knew that I had to figure out how to enter this space. So that's actually how I got introduced to the space.
And um, back then, there was really there. Most certainly was nobody on Bloomberg Radio talking about the the industy three. But there was really a really little little to no activity,
most certainly no institutional involvement. Um. But you know, we we we saw that we we had an understanding that there was a lot of momentum that was building and that this would be you know what it is now becoming, and the way that we would take advantage of that was to be first movers and really getting an understanding. And so we do so. I think a lot of people it's it's a it's a complicated world because states can legalize you know, the the recreational use um, you know,
medical use. Federal laws though still have not don't seem to be quite in sync. And that makes it a problem, does it for companies that want to scale up, you know, they really do want to invest in big production of marijuana, shipping of marijuana, storage of marijuana. Yes, And I think you know, for US, problems and roadblocks are opportunities. But nonetheless those those do exist. I mean, the biggest thing
that exists is you know, each state is its own island. UM. And because of the fact that this is still scheduled the way it is, and because of all the UM federal illegality, there is no crossing state lines. And because of that, UM, you know, you talk about scaling up, you can't scale up in that traditional sense and gain those economies of scale, most specifically as an operator. UM. If you have a license in New York, for example, UM, you can't go ahead and produce you know, medical marijuan
and ship at the Pennsylvania So UM. You know that is I guess on one hand, and impediment on another hand, it's an opportunity. Right. There's we are a very very quickly evolving industry. The laws, the regulations, everything is evolving alongside you know, the UM, the industry itself. So everything is evolving all at once, from regulatory all the way to access to institutional finance and you know and capital UM. All that's evolving kind of contemporaneously UM. And as that happens,
you know, there's a there is some confusion. There's a serious learning curve UM. And we we actually we use a more positive spin. We call it informational arbitract so that's how we like to look at it. The uh your fund, right, the first nine figure fund that directly invest in the cannabis industry. This is very interesting because as the industry gets bigger, and if it's growing, there's
a lot of institutional investors. I would think at some point when the industry is large and I would like to put some money in, and then of course the people think, hey, this is a great business opportunity. How does this fund work? Would tell us about it? Well, so, yeah, I mean you are right, the institutional players they want to be in this industry. I mean I've been taking those meetings on my trips to New York now for the last couple of years and then the last you know,
a couple of months. Um. The speed at which the velocity at which that that interest is growing is just you know, tremendous and significant. There are very large you know a u M funds dollar a u M funds that I know because I've been having the meetings that have had you know, LP say hey, we want you to go ahead and figure out how to invest into this industry. You know, they're working on carve outs, are
working on bites funds they're working on that. They don't move as swiftly as for example, family offices can move when they're investing their own dollars um And so there is that that information, you know, we taught we have the information arbitrage. They're trying to get smart on it, they're trying to figure it out, and then they're trying to be able to put themselves in a position to be able to invest in the space. And so for us, we've been in this industry for a while, we understand
the nuances from a regulatory perspective. From an operational perspective, we actually believe that the biggest risk in investing in the spaces operational risk at this point in time. Then, because that is our background and we have a commanding understanding of that, we have the management company were uniquely positioned to really take capital, deploy capital directly into the space, you know, be able to get tech likes upside. Uh all right, Avan Bierman, thank you so very much. Co
founder and CEO of med Men. They are a cannabis private equity firm based in Los Angeles. Just a quick programming note Tomorrow Wednesday, taking stock broadcasting live at Pershing's Insight Conference in Orlando. This is when they're Radio Bloombergtaking Stock is brought to by Benzelbusch Motorcar in Anglewood, New Jersey, offering commitment to service, luxury and value with total transparency from America's premiere automotive dealership. Define the Way You Drive at Benzelbush dot com