When a new industry emerges, investors who are on the frontier are often the ones reaping the out-sized rewards. Such is the case with many Canadian cannabis investors and innovators - the Canadian cannabis industry has ballooned into gigantic proportions, with the money early investors put into such enterprises ballooning in a corresponding fashion.
When stock prices appreciate in such a manner, and buyouts, mergers, and acquisitions happen on an increasingly more frequent basis, concerns about corporate governance can begin to emerge as investors begin to look deeper into the entangled nature of the growing company they have invested in.
One of Canada's largest cannabis producers, Aphria Inc. (TSX:APH), has recently taken scrutiny from the media in the way it has managed potential real or perceived conflicts of interest in recent acquisitions.
In particular, the company's recent acquisition of Nuuvera Inc. has turned heads, with news that six of Aphria's directors, as well as the company's CFO, owned shares in Nuuvera before the acquisition - positions which were not disclosed to the public.
The company has announced a new formal policy, outlining guidelines by which insiders can invest in outside companies, limiting the potential for conflicts of interest in the future. While this is definitely a step in the right direction, keeping an eye on what insiders are doing within this sector should remain a top priority for investors at this point in time.
Invest wisely, my friends.
