American marijuana companies turn to Canadian stock exchange to raise capital

Some of America’s best cannabis companies are now being traded in Canadian stock markets.

The California-based marijuana retailer MedMen Enterprises started trading this week on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), Investors Business Daily reports.

With a reported pre-money valuation of $1.65 billion dollars, the well-known dispensary chain plans to go public in Canada through a reverse takeover deal with Ladera Ventures. Although Ladera trades on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, MedMen will be listed on the SCE.

“Canada has a very well developed ecosystem for early stage corporate finance in the public markets,” said Canadian Securities Exchange CEO Richard Carleton to Smell the Truth. “We did grow up on extractive industries like mining exploration, and oil and gas exploration and production. We actually are one of the few public markets in the world where you have risk capital that’s brought to bear on the public side.”

U.S. marijuana companies are not allowed to list on the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange due to federal restrictions, leaving a nascent yet booming market to be traded in Canada.

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