The two will remain in their roles for now, working with Aphria's board chair, Irwin Simon, and the company's president, Jakob Ripshtein, on a succession plan, the company said.
"Now with legalization and globalization, including a huge market opportunity with positive developments in the US, Aphria's next generation of leadership may take the reins," Neufeld said in a statement.
"Building and leading a company like Aphria, which exploded from an idea in late 2013 to our many successes to date, has been an incredible journey, despite the toll it has taken on health, family, and personal priorities."
For its fiscal second quarter , Aphria lost an adjusted 0.01 Canadian dollars a share as net revenue grew 63% versus a year ago to 21.67 million Canadian dollars. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for adjusted earnings of 0.02 Canadian dollars on revenue of $28.77 million.
On December 3, the company was accused by the short seller Quintessential Capital Management's Hindenburg Research of being a "shell game with a cannabis business on the side." Quintessential accused Aphria of announcing acquisitions in July that it called "largely worthless" and said were used to divert as much as $700 million, or nearly half of its total net assets. Aphria denied the allegations.
On December 27, Green Growth Brands announced plans to launch a takeover bid for Aphria, offering 1.5714 Green Growth shares for each Aphria share a 45.5% premium to the previous day's closing price. Aphria rejected the offer , saying it undervalued the company.
Aphria shares were down 2.43% to $6.40 a share early Friday.
