CannaRoyalty, a Canadian company with 15 canna-business holdings in the U.S., is public today on the Canadian Securities Exchange using the symbol CRZ, according to a Financial Post report. The company had a pre-listing valuation of $150 million and opened this morning at CA$3.65.
According to CEO Marc Lustig, the company decided to list on the CSE after resistance from the Toronto Stock Exchange because the company holds some recreational companies. In the last five days, Aphria stock, one of CannaRoyalty’s investors listed on the TSX, has jumped almost 2 percent.
“A lot of the excitement and the appreciation of the Canadian stocks has been in part because of U.S. money flows that can’t access U.S. listings,” Lustig said in the report. “I think what CannaRoyalty offers investors is that exposure, in addition to Canada, to U.S. assets.”
CannaRoyalty has interests in U.S. cannabis companies that deal in everything from real estate to skincare products while providing financing to businesses denied by conventional financial institutions.
“We’ve really benefitted from the dislocation between all the innovation that’s going on on the one hand and the lack of access to capital because lending is not conventional: Banks won’t lend to the sector because they are still skeptical about the image and taboos and laws,” Lustig said.
This spring, Canadian lawmakers are expected to unveil a plan that would legalize cannabis for adult use nationally.