Vireo Growth Settles Altmore Claim with Share Issuance

MINNEAPOLIS – Vireo Growth Inc. announced that it will issue 462,963 subordinate voting shares as part of a settlement with SHWZ Altmore, LLC and Altmore Debt I, LP – the entities the company collectively refers to as Altmore in its public filing.

The shares represent consideration for Vireo’s acquisition of secured obligations and related liens previously held by Altmore, formalized through an assignment and assumption agreement entered into alongside the settlement. Designated as Settlement Shares, they will be locked up for six months from the date of issuance, with transfer prohibited during that period unless Vireo grants prior written consent. All additional terms of the settlement remain confidential.

The “SHWZ” in SHWZ Altmore’s name is no coincidence. Altmore was a secured lender to Medicine Man Technologies Inc., operating as Schwazze, before Vireo orchestrated a credit bid takeover of Schwazze’s assets in late 2025. That transaction, which saw Vireo acquire approximately 89% of Schwazze’s outstanding senior secured convertible notes at a substantial discount, was one of the more structurally complex deals the Cannabis sector had seen in years. Schwazze had previously renegotiated its $15 million Altmore loan agreement in 2024, but Altmore retained secured positions and liens that outlasted that earlier restructuring and were not fully absorbed by Vireo’s credit bid process.

By issuing equity to acquire those remaining obligations and liens, Vireo converts a creditor relationship into a direct holding, removing the secured exposure from its books and bringing the assigned interest inside the company’s capital structure. It is a standard step in distressed asset integration, and it indicates Vireo is working to clear the financial overhang carried over from the Schwazze deal.

The Altmore settlement arrives during a characteristically active stretch for Vireo. The company recently completed the acquisition of C21 Investments in Nevada, announced a merger agreement with Planet 13 Holdings Inc. that extends its footprint into Nevada, Florida, and Illinois, and has a pending set of Ohio acquisitions valued at approximately $208 million in aggregate. The company now spans 10 states with roughly 170 dispensaries.

In August, the board authorized a share buyback program covering up to 2.4 million subordinate voting shares – a signal that management believes the stock is undervalued even as it continues issuing new equity to resolve legacy creditor claims. A 30-for-1 share consolidation completed in June 2026 had already reorganized the capital structure, providing a cleaner foundation for the integrations underway.

The 462,963 Settlement Shares represent a fraction of Vireo’s approximately 48.5 million subordinate voting shares outstanding, and the dilutive impact is minimal. But this transaction is worth reading carefully. Settling inherited creditor claims through equity [rather than cash] is a capital-efficient discipline in a sector where liquidity remains a persistent constraint. As Vireo’s acquisition pace accelerates, its ability to systematically retire these legacy obligations without meaningful balance sheet strain will be one of the less visible but more telling measures of how well management is actually running the business it has built.