Ascend Wellness Shares Surges 22% On Canadian Stock Market IPO

TORONTO– Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH) Inc surged about 22% in its Canadian stock market debut on Tuesday to fetch a market value of $1.6 billion, as the green rush gains momentum following a sustained surge of consumer demand for cannabis, over one year into the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Ascend, which is an American company, listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange, is a vertically integrated branded and retail company. Shares closed at $9.75 on their first day of trading, compared with the initial public offering price (IPO) of $8.

Several U.S. Cannabis multi-state operators or MSOs, have gone public in recent months as expectations rise that Democratic lawmakers will soon pass legislation enabling access to federal banking, allowing more institutional capital to be deployed  into the booming industry.

“I see private equity being the big player in this industry over the next few years,” AWH founder and Chief Executive Abner Kurtin said in an interview with Reuters. Ascend has previously been in merger talks with other major American cannabis companies such as Trulieve, according to Reuters reporting, but that marriage was never consummated.

(This information is primarily sourced from Reuters and Ascend Wellness.  Highly Capitalized has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Read our Disclaimer here).

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