U.S. marijuana company Curaleaf Holdings made its debut in Toronto this Monday and it was less than exciting.
The company had accumulated $400 million in equity raising, making it the biggest in Canada’s marijuana history thus far.
The company’s shares opened at C$8.70 on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), which was lower than its offer price of C$11.45.
The stock recovered and traded 18.4 percent higher at 10:26 a.m. ET but still was under the issue price at C$10.30.
The lower trading price “is not unusual when a company increases the size of the raise,” remarked Russell Stanley, the managing director for equity research at Beacon Securities. “We’ve also seen a rough couple of weeks for the cannabis space as a whole.”
Marijuana stocks have been sliding since Canada started legal recreational marijuana sales on October 17th.
Curaleaf, which owns 28 dispensaries, 12 cultivation and 9 processing sites in 12 U.S. states, saw its raising attract more than 100 institutional investors, according to the company.
Boris Jordan, executive chairman of the company said to Reuters, “We were quite surprised by the demand,” Jordan said. “Being one of the larger players in the U.S., there was a lot of attraction in investing in a company that has a multi-state footprint.”
The company is planning to grow to 41 stores by year end, and to over 69 by the end of 2020, with cultivation also expanding, according to its CEO.
“If we can build the biggest company in the U.S. we’ll have the wherewithal, when we get to maximum penetration here, (to) start looking at other markets,” Jordan commented.
