Canadian cannabis company Tilray posts $434 million net loss for 2022

Canadian cannabis and alcohol company Tilray Brands posted a $457.8 million net loss for its fourth quarter and a $434 million net loss for its 2022 fiscal year.

The quarterly and annual net loss includes a $395 million noncash impairment charge “primarily impacting inventory, goodwill and other intangible assets.”

Tilray reports its earnings in U.S. dollars.

On a Thursday conference call with analysts and investors, Tilray CEO Irwin Simon attributed the impairment charge to “both market conditions and the work that we have done to optimize our operations.”

Simon said the company now aims to generate up to $4 billion in revenue by the end of its 2024 fiscal year, “depending upon federal (cannabis) legalization in the U.S. and Germany.”

Tilray’s net revenue for the 2022 fiscal year was $628.4 million, representing growth of 22.5% over the previous fiscal year.

By the end of Tilray’s 2023 fiscal year, Simon said the company expects to be free cash-flow positive and achieve $100 million in cost savings following its megamerger with Aphria.

The company said it has already realized $85 million in cost synergies related to that merger.

In Europe, Tilray’s chief strategy officer and head of international, Denise Faltischek, said the company expects “to establish ourselves as a market leader to broadly legalize (the) adult-use cannabis market in Germany, and seize a sizable portion of that market.”

Faltischek said Tilray believes “all of Europe could legalize medical-use cannabis within the next two years or sooner, with certain countries legalizing adult-use shortly thereafter.”

Blair MacNeil, president of Tilray’s Canadian business, said the domestic cannabis market is challenging, “characterized by an oversupply of cannabis, unreasonable regulatory barriers, and punitive excise taxation exacerbated by price compression.”

MacNeil said Tilray’s Canadian adult-use market share declined from 10.2% to 8.3% in the previous quarter, citing “challenging industry conditions, (stock-keeping unit) rationalizations and discontinuation of partner brands.”

However, MacNeil said Tilray believes that trend will reverse as the result of improvements to its cannabis flower portfolio.

Tilray’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the fourth quarter were $11.5 million, a 13.9% increase over the previous quarter’s adjusted EBITDA.

Net revenue for the fourth quarter grew to $153.3 million, an increase of 0.9% over Tilray’s previous quarter.

The company’s annual net revenue of $628.4 million consisted of 38% cannabis revenue, 42% distribution revenue, 11% beverage alcohol revenue and 9% wellness revenue.

Tilray reported cash and cash equivalents worth $415.9 million at the end of the quarter on March 31.

The company’s shares trade as TLRY on the Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange.

Solomon Israel can be reached at solomon.israel@mjbizdaily.com.