The Need for Weed: Why Wall Street Is Getting Hooked on Cannabis
Hedge funds, investors and mutual funds are piling in after Canada allowed recreational usage
By Nicole Bullock
Wall Street is developing a bit of a drug habit.
Nelson Peltz, the veteran activist investor, signed on this week as a strategic adviser to Aurora, a Canadian cannabis producer, picking up a load of stock options in the process. News of the appointment sent Aurora’s New York-listed shares up 14 per cent, bringing gains for the year to more than 80 per cent.
The hiring of Mr Peltz — best known these days for his big stakes in Procter & Gamble and General Electric, two stalwarts of corporate America — is a sign of how “pot stocks” are catching on, as legal barriers fall away and as consumers show more interest in cannabis-derived products. Less than a year after Canada broke the mould in allowing adult recreational usage of cannabis, hedge funds, individual investors and long-only mutual funds are piling in.
Anthony Scaramucci, who has returned to his SkyBridge investment firm after a short spell as communications director in the Trump administration, is planning to run cannabis sessions at his SALT conference in Las Vegas this year alongside other hot topics such…
