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ARTICLE · 13 APRIL 2017

A "Green Rush" For Debt Financing?

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Canadian cannabis policy announcements over the past year have spurred investment in licensed cannabis producers and dealers ("Licensed Producers"), resulting in one of Canada's newest growth industries.

CanadaFinance and Banking
Graham Topa
Graham Topa
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Canadian cannabis policy announcements over the past year have spurred investment in licensed cannabis producers and dealers ("Licensed Producers"), resulting in one of Canada's newest growth industries. Deloitte projects the potential size of a legal, recreational retail cannabis market at $9 billion.2 Equity investors have responded with what is becoming known as the "green rush," with medical marijuana companies raising more than $466 million in Canadian capital markets in 2016.3

While it is high times for equity financing, there is far less buzz for debt financing of Licensed Producers. Indeed, the Chief Executive Officer of one leading Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Licensed Producer has gone on record to say that "debt financing is the principal absent business instrument for the [regulated cannabis] sector."4

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