Scotts Miracle-Gro Pot Partner Flowr Nearly Triples in Debut

(Bloomberg) -- Last week’s wild trading in cannabis stocks apparently hasn’t discouraged investors from jumping into new listings as pot producer Flowr Corp. nearly tripled in its trading debut Wednesday.

Flowr, which was listed on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange through a reverse takeover, has the backing of some big names, including gardening giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. The companies have teamed up to build a 50,000-square-foot research facility in British Columbia, which will be used by Scotts subsidiary Hawthorne Gardening Co. to test its lights and nutrients on cannabis.

Flowr’s president and co-founder Tom Flow was also a co-founder of MedReleaf Corp., which Aurora Cannabis Inc. bought in July for about $2.2 billion in stock. He brought several members of the MedReleaf team to Flowr.

Flowr shares surged as high as C$7.30 in early trading Wednesday, up 181 percent from the C$2.60 subscription price of an oversubscribed offering that raised C$36 million ($27.7 million) earlier this month. The stock was trading at C$6.59 at 10:14 a.m. in Toronto, a gain of 153 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristine Owram in Toronto at kowram@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, Richard Richtmyer

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.