SEC Filing Reveals Huge Investor in Green Thumb Industries

A big question among cannabis investors and operators is which “single institutional investor” who took down over 3 million shares of Green Thumb Industries (CSE: GTII) (OTC: GTBIF) recently. An SEC filing today disclosed that it may be Palestra Capital Management, based in NYC. The firm disclosed a 9.2 million share stake, amounting to 5.3% of GTI.

PCM is managed by Jeremy Schiffman, who was a partner at TPG-AXON prior to launching Palestra in 2011, and Andrew Immerman, who was a portfolio manager at CR Intrinsic Investors prior to joining Palestra in 2011. As of mid-November, the firm reported $4.3 billion in assets invested in just 29 companies, so the GTI stake is rather meaningful to the firm.

While it’s not clear that PCM is the buyer of the recent offering or the same company that bought 5.5 million shares at C$19.25 in late October and then added 2.5 million shares at C$27.50 in mid-December, it seems hard to imagine how it could have acquired such a large stake otherwise.

The increased institutional involvement, while still nascent, bodes well for the entire group of multi-state  operators (MSOs), as we previously discussed. Other leading investors known to be involved in the sector include Putnam and Wasatch Global.

Breaking News by Alan Brochstein, CFA
Alan Brochstein, CFA
Based in Houston, Alan leverages his experience as founder of online community 420 Investor, the first and still largest due diligence platform focused on the publicly-traded stocks in the cannabis industry. With his extensive network in the cannabis community, Alan continues to find new ways to connect the industry and facilitate its sustainable growth. At New Cannabis Ventures, he is responsible for content development and strategic alliances. Before shifting his focus to the cannabis industry in early 2013, Alan, who began his career on Wall Street in 1986, worked as an independent research analyst following over two decades in research and portfolio management. A prolific writer, with over 650 articles published since 2007 at Seeking Alpha, where he has 70,000 followers, Alan is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a frequent source to the media, including the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV. Contact Alan: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Email

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