Canadian-based marijuana edibles company Nutritional High (
CSE:C.NHL,
Stock Forum) closed its IPO last week and debuted on the markets Monday morning to a tidal wave of trading, racking up 8.9m in volume.
The company, which is seeking to set up an automated food production plant in the US state of Colorado, where recreational marijuana is permitted and 800 dispensaries do business currently, is developing brands for gummies, hard candy, chocolates, drinks and more, even though such products are currently illegal in Canada.
The market listing started with a bang, even as users of some online trading dashboards struggled to find the ticker symbol, reporting delays as phone trades needed to be made instead.
Despite that, and a relatively small amount of name recognition on the new group, trading was hot from the get-go, with the 8.9m shares traded dwarfing the next busiest CSE stock, Umbral Resources (
CSE:C.UMB,
Stock Forum), at 2.2m.
The C.NHL trades accounted for
well over half of all the 17.1m CSE shares traded on the day.
Nutritional High is not alone in the edibles space. While there is loose competition from earlier movers in the US, several other Canadian companies, including some in the early MMPR space, are gearing up for moves into the value-added weed area in places like Washington State and beyond. As part of a multi-state strategy, Nutritional High has selected for a license for a dispensary in Illinois it hopes will make it possible to expand into that state quickly.
The company has enjoyed coverage in traditional media over the last several days, with stories on BNN, the
Financial Post, and
Huffington Post, along with
our own piece last week.
Trading in the US is expected within four weeks.
The stock closed trading at $0.085, a 70% premium on founder shares sold privately last year at $0.05.
--Chris Parry
https://www.twitter.com/chrisparry
FULL DISCLOSURE: Nutritional High is a Stockhouse Publishing marketing client