Aurora Cannabis is going public on the New York Stock Exchange

Aurora
Cannabis is getting a coveted New York Stock Exchange
listing.
AP Photo/Steven
Senne

• 
  Aurora Cannabis, one of the largest Canadian marijuana
  producers, is going public on the New York Stock
  Exchange.
• Shares will start trading on Tuesday morning.
• Aurora is joining a select list of Canadian cannabis
  producers, including
  Tilray and Cronos, that are able to list on US-based
  exchanges.

Aurora Cannabis, one of the largest Canadian marijuana
producers, is going public on the New York Stock Exchange. When
Aurora’s shares start trading on Tuesday
morning, it will join a select list of cannabis
producers that are listing on US-based exchanges.

While US-based exchanges were initially reticent to list Canadian
marijuana producers, companies like Tilray (which conducted
an initial
public offering on the NASDAQ in July), Cronos Group, and
Canopy Growth all now list on US exchanges.

“We believe that the legalization in Canada offers a road
map to invest in the companies that will form the basis of the
legal cannabis industry in the coming years,” Jon Trauben, a
managing partner at the cannabis-focused Altitude Investment
Management, previously told Business Insider.

To get listed on a US exchange like the NYSE, cannabis
producers have to prove they are not violating any federal laws
by importing cannabis into the US, except under specific
circumstances.

Read more
: 

Some
of the hottest companies in the booming cannabis sector are going
on hiring sprees as Canada’s legal marijuana market
opens

Aurora currently trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the
ticker ACB. The Edmonton-based cultivator, or licensed producer,
grows cannabis for both the adult-use and medicinal market.

Aurora’s market capitalization has gained over 100% since the
middle of August. On August 15, the beverage giant Constellation
Brands announced it was upping
its stake to $4 billion in Aurora’s rival, Canopy Growth.

As of last week, marijuana
is legal in Canada. Legalization in Canada, however, didn’t
have the impact most investors had hoped for. Stocks
got slammed as traders dumped shares.
Aurora sank over 12% on Monday in the leadup to Tuesday’s
NYSE listing. 

An
employee cuts cannabis plants in a laboratory at the headquarters
of AGES agency in Vienna, Austria March 15,
2018.
REUTERS/Leonhard
Foeger

Coca-Cola is looking into producing CBD-infused beverages with
Aurora 

Coca-Cola is
reportedly eyeing a deal with Aurora to produce beverages
infused with cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive ingredient
in marijuana for the Canadian market.

Neither company confirmed the rumors when contacted by
Business Insider.

Analysts and investors, however, said they weren’t
surprised to hear the rumors and told Business Insider

that it would be a smart move on Coca-Cola’s
part.

“We are seeing high profile companies, in addition to
institutional investors, waking up to opportunities in the
space,” Ben Kovler, the CEO of the publicly-traded Green Thumb
Industries said

Challenges do remain for corporations in the cannabis
industry. For one, banks are unwilling
to lend money to companies that deal with marijuana, as
the plant is considered an illegal, Schedule I drug by the US
federal government.

“The challenge remains that until the U.S. government
de-schedules cannabis, companies like Coca-Cola will be hamstrung
to produce innovative cannabis products with American operators,”
Kevin Murphy, the CEO of Acreage Holdings, which counts former
politicians like John Boehner on its board, said. 

Aurora is also hiring like crazy as Canada’s legal marijuana
market opens. The company has
a whopping 11 pages of job openings on its website. These
positions are based across Canada and range from high-level
executive positions to laboratory research positions and
industrial cleaners.

For some cannabis companies, a listing on a US-based exchange is
a golden ticket — but it won’t get easier for companies to list
until the federal government changes its stance.

“Canada has this big finger that is wagging, that is
pointing down to us in the US saying, ‘How come you can’t get
your stuff together?” Adam Bierman, the CEO of the cannabis
dispensary chain MedMen
told Business Insider. 

Read more of Business Insider’s cannabis industry coverage: