Irwin Simon: Owen, thank you for that. I think it’s important as we’ve talked about rescheduling in the U.S. and what our international business has done because it’s all medical cannabis and our growth cannabis is — was over 50% in internationally without, of course, any acquisitions. And the team has done a great job. I’m going to let Denise talk about that in one second. But we have spent some time in Germany meeting with the German government, and we expect some things from that. So, Denise?
Denise Faltischek: Thanks, Irwin, and hi, Owen. To answer your first question in terms of the back half, so we have a strategy that looks at how do we grow our existing markets and major markets for us today, as we’ve talked about our Germany, Poland and Luxembourg, and then also how do we continue to grow the ones that were — that are emerging and we’re entering in. We consider those along the lines of the UK, Portugal, Italy, Czech Republic. We are monitoring, of course, all the new regulations that are being discussed, whether Ukraine legalizes and also looking at Switzerland in terms of the medical market. We continue to basically roll out what we consider our go-to-market strategy, which is try to be the first mover, get that early advantage.
We find that doctors utilize the worldwide knowledge that we have on medical cannabis. And so, as we go into new countries, our reputation in medical cannabis where we’ve been looked at as an expert by both medical professionals as well as government and healthcare professionals, we go in, we provide education symposiums and really work to bring the reputation and knowledge of Tilray into each of those markets. Answering your second question in terms of the legislation that’s coming on board, we note that in — sometime in January, the legislation is going to be in front of the German parliament again. Early February, it will be in front of the state parliamentary system for their review. And we are hoping to see that legislation passed in Q1 of this year, 2024.
And then, shortly after that, we expect to see the rollout of decriminalization and social clubs, as well as the scheduling of medical cannabis as narcotic. We’ll see doctors come on board. We are obviously increasing our educational efforts to bring more and more health professionals on board with medical cannabis as a therapeutic option. And we’re really, really optimistic about the future in Germany.
Owen Bennett: Great. Thanks, guys. Really helpful. Appreciate it.
Irwin Simon: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from the line of John Zamparo with CIBC. Please proceed with your question.
John Zamparo: Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to get to the change in the agreement with Aphria Diamond. This sounds like a material win. So, just confirming the amounts, you now expect to save $30 million to $35 million typically paid to your JV partner and also $20-plus-million in cash taxes a year. So, $55 million a year annually, the increased value to Tilray. Just confirming that that’s the change. And then, the question is how did this come about? And why did the JV partner agree to it? Did Tilray have to give up something to receive such a benefit? Thank you.
Carl Merton: So, thanks, John. Good question. So, just — I just want to be clear that because of the way the accounting works for the — for Aphria Diamond, the number that you raised in terms of the $33 million to $35 million, that’s going to change the allocation of net income or net loss in an individual quarter. It doesn’t flow through the income statement. It won’t create additional net income for the consolidated entity. It changes the allocation of that income between the JV partner and us. As it relates to the cash taxes, that obviously impacts our cash balance. And it also — that part only will flow through our income statement. In terms of the negotiation, I think, when we looked at the agreement and when our partner looked at the agreement, they realized that the Canadian market had changed and we needed to modify the agreement.
Obviously, there were give and takes associated with that agreement. But at the end of the day, we’ve been able to modify that and deliver that value to our shareholders.
Irwin Simon: I think the most important thing is, we have a good partner in the [indiscernible] that have worked with us I think as we look at the long term of the industry. But the most important thing is when we went in there, price compression has hit this company close to $200 million over the last couple of years, and they were not sharing within the price compression. I think there is some important here that there was even though there was a time limit on this here but walking in there win-win for both and hopefully we can sell more cannabis. We’ve consolidated some additional cannabis into his — into their facilities with the Tilray and some of the HEXO acquisitions and some of the other stuff we’re doing. So, there was multiple parts of it that made sense. And I think part of that too was in doing that was benefit of some tax opportunities for us that was very, very helpful. So, it was a win-win situation.
John Zamparo: Got it. That’s helpful. Thank you.
Irwin Simon: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from the line of Matt Bottomley with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question.
