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Canada’s federal adult-use cannabis law hasn’t even gone into effect yet. But already the year has been a huge one for the country’s cannabis companies. Cannabis legalization doesn’t just mean access to a previously prohibited retail space; it also means access to financial instruments and stock exchanges. Furthermore, federal legalization means Canadian cannabis companies can go public not only on domestic exchanges, but on U.S. exchanges as well. The Canadian cannabis companies Tilray and Canopy Growth Corp. have both listed on U.S. exchanges. And, this week, Canadian cannabis giant Aurora Cannabis announced its plans to join the ranks of major companies listing on a major U.S. exchange.
In an interview with the Financial Post on Tuesday, Aurora Cannabis CCO Cam Battley said the company aims to establish a U.S. listing of its shares in October. Battley didn’t specify on which exchange, Nasdaq or the NYSE, Aurora plans to list. Shares of the company currently trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).
Whichever U.S. exchange Aurora chooses, the move is clearly designed to attract U.S. investors to the company. Aurora recently made a series of high-profile acquisitions, and is looking to raise capital for new operations. More information on the company’s specific listing strategy will likely be forthcoming after Aurora releases its Q3 earnings.
News of Aurora Cannabis’ plans to list on a U.S. exchange in October sparked a surge of buy orders for ACBFF, an over-the-counter market ticker through which U.S. investors can buy Canadian stock on the TSX. Order volume was so high, in fact, that the popular fee-free trading app Robinhood had to suspend any new buying of Aurora Cannabis today, Business Insider reports.
Robinhood hasn’t said much about the suspension, except that buy orders exceeded the capacity of execution venues to complete them. In other words, orders to buy ACBFF broke Robinhood, on which Aurora is the sixteenth most popular stock. According to Robinhood’s website, over 81,000 investors hold Aurora shares with the brokerage. Other major cannabis companies, including Tilray, are also on Robinhood. But only Aurora is experiencing issues with trade volume.
Financial regulators also temporarily suspended trading of Aurora shares on the TSX this week. The brief hold came as the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada investigated reports of a possible partnership between Coca-Cola and Aurora. The talks reportedly addressed the possibility of launching a CBD-infused beverage.
Aurora acknowledges holding “exploratory discussions” with Coca-Cola. But the company says there’s no agreement or arrangement of any kind with the beverage company. Still, news that there could be sent Aurora’s stock’s skyward on Monday with a 20 percent price bump. Over the past year, Aurora’s share value has increased more than 300 percent.
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