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by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The S&P/TSX Cannabis Index added 1.11 to 166.37, while the CSE Composite Index added 10.47 to 672.02. Shareholders of one pure-play Florida operator got an early Christmas present. Liberty Health Sciences Inc. (LHS) shot up 35 cents to 89 cents on 29.2 million shares, after accepting a $372-million takeover offer from the increasingly acquisitive MSO (multistate operator) AYR Strategies Inc. (AYR.A), down 63 cents to $27.85 on 667,300 shares. The all-share deal will see 0.03683 of an AYR share issued for each Liberty share and values Liberty's stock at $1.05.

Liberty has 28 dispensaries across Florida, with plans to boost that number to 42 by the end of 2021, and also has a cultivation and processing facility in Gainesville that spans 387 acres (about half of the size of New York's Central Park). It has been active in Florida since 2017. Although the Sunshine State is currently a medical-only market, its demographics and regulations are generally favourable to cannabis companies, which is one reason why Liberty is one of the few players in the cannabis industry to be profitable. So is the state's dominant player, Trulieve Cannabis Corp. (TRUL: $40.51). The enormous gap in their share prices -- 89 cents versus $40 -- partly reflects Trulieve's greater success in securing cash to pursue its development goals and protect its market share. Liberty, by contrast, has spent the last few years meandering down from a high of $2.88 in 2018.

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