Nearly matured medical marijuana plants grow in a climate controlled growing room.James MacDonald/Bloomberg
Another provider of Canadian exchange-traded funds is jumping on the pot stock bandwagon, with Evolve Funds Group Inc. looking to launch the country's first actively managed marijuana ETF.
Evolve Funds Group Inc filed a preliminary prospectus with regulators Friday to launch the Marijuana ETF.
With the ticker SEED, the fund will invest in its own actively managed portfolio comprised of a diversified mix of equity securities of companies listed domestically and globally, with business activities in the recreational and/or medical marijuana industry.
With a management fee of 0.75 per cent, the fund will be managed by Evolve Funds.
Marijuana stocks have seen a surge in investor activity this month, prompting the ETF industry to get in on the action. Earlier this week, Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. filed a preliminary prospectus for a second marijuana-focused fund – Horizons Junior Marijuana Growers Index ETF (HMJR) – with the aim to capture small-cap companies in the industry.
Horizons launched the world's first marijuana-focused ETF – the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF – last April. The fund, which goes by the ticker HMMJ – saw more than $100-million in assets under management within the first month. It currently has $790-million under management.
In the U.S., approval for a marijuana ETF was at a standstill until ETF Management Group launched the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJX) on Dec. 26.
The fund was previously known as the Tierra XP Latin America Real Estate ETF (LARE). After changing its name, investment mandate and ticker, ETFMG didn't have to endure a lengthy new filing with regulators and therefore gained a huge first movers advantage in becoming the first marijuana fund in the U.S.
The fund instantly saw a flurry of investor activity with over $240-million (U.S.) in new assets within its first week of trading and now has over $341-million in assets under management.
SEED has yet to say whether it will be launched on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) or Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc.
If approved, HMJR, will launch on the Aequitas NEO Exchange – another difference to Horizons' first fund HMMJ which launched on the TSX. One reason for the switch is to allow for the inclusion of more Canadian-listed operations that do a significant amount of business in the U.S.
In October, the TSX formally banned marijuana firms that breach U.S. federal drug laws from listing on its market. It is now reviewing its existing issuers and says it will delist any found to be offside its rules.
Depending on which exchange Evolve chooses, SEED could include companies such as CannaRoyalty Corp. and Friday Night Inc.– companies that are currently not found in HMMJ.
Clare O’Hara