March 30 (Reuters) – Medical cannabis cultivator Northern Leaf Ltd has raised 14 million pounds ($19.21 million) in an oversubscribed offering over the past month, adding five global institutional investors before its London debut later this year, the company’s adviser told Reuters.
The capital raise comes just months after Jersey-based Northern Leaf became the only second firm to receive a license to grow medical cannabis in the British Isles, and reflects the rising investor appetite for the sector.
Cannabis is increasingly being used to cope with mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and insomnia and many European nations are tweaking their laws to allow sale of medical products derived from the plant. Germany is expected to cross $2 billion in medical cannabis sales over the next four years.
Northern Leaf will use the money from the latest fund raise to grow commercial cannabis at its 75,000 square feet facility in Jersey and build an extraction plant, its adviser Tristan Gervais said.
The company has also appointed advisers for its debut on the London Stock Exchange later this year, Gervais, head of cannabis banking at merchant bank Chrystal Capital Partners said. ($1 = 0.7288 pounds) (Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
