Cannabis Canada Daily: Lineups, brisk sales greet Ontario pot shops on first day of business

Ontario pot retailers do brisk business on first day of operations 

Ontario’s 10 legal pot shops officially opened for business on Monday and are already reporting early success. Fire & Flower said in a release its Ottawa store did $50,000 in sales on its first day of operation. Meanwhile, The Hunny Pot did 800 transactions in the first three hours of doing business on Monday, according to a store manager who spoke to BNN Bloomberg. That’s not surprising since it was the only legal pot store open in Toronto and dozens of people lined up around the block throughout the day.  Only 10 pot shops are legally open in the province, short of the 25 that the province aimed at opening by April 1, although the remaining stores should be open at the end of the month.

Pot-focused ETFs have short sellers to thank for their good fortune 

Exchange-traded funds, that have a stake in cannabis companies are doing better than most thanks to short sellers. Bloomberg reports that the two largest North American pot ETFs have made millions lending out their holdings to traders who want to bet against this year’s 60 per cent climb in the red-hot market for cannabis stocks. As well, while many ETFs engage in securities lending, it’s been a particularly lucrative practice for pot funds as many cannabis stocks have a small public float and aren’t readily available to borrow.

CannTrust gets into the outdoor cultivation game with B.C. land buy

Vaughan, Ont.-based pot producer CannTrust Holdings announced Tuesday it acquired 81 acres of land in British Columbia to advance its outdoor cannabis cultivation operation in the province. The company said in a release it plans to close a second transaction that would give it over 200 acres of land for its outdoor grow operation. CannTrust expects its total outdoor cultivation plans would add  between 100,000 to 200,000 kilograms of annualized production capacity in the third quarter of 2020..

SOL Global takes minority stake in Chicago-based hemp-maker Sacred

SOL Global Investments announced it acquired a 10.3 per cent stake in Sacred Hemp, the Chicago-based manufacturer of premium hempseed oil-infused products. The investment will be earmarked for SOL’s dedicated hemp/CBD subsidiary Heavenly Rx, the company said in a release Tuesday. SOL’s deal comes a week after it acquired a 9.8 per cent stake in craft soda maker Seattle-based Jones Soda Co. At the time, SOL said it believes there are numerous operational and strategic opportunities to maximize shareholder value in Jones Soda.
 

DAILY BUZZ

US$2.2 million
- The amount of revenue generated by iAnthus Capital Holdings in its fourth quarter, the company said late Monday.