That is an excellent "find"
I am pasting the article with "highlights"
More than a dozen public pension funds are investing in marijuana through a California real estate investment trust (REIT), a sign that institutional investors wielding billions of dollars in state funds are comfortable pumping money into the cannabis industry.
In total, at least 16 state pension funds in the United States and one in Canada are investing in San Diego-based Innovative Industrial Properties, which leases properties to licensed medical cannabis operators, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
They include:
New York State Common Retirement Fund
California State Teachers Retirement System
Texas Permanent School Fund
The report highlights the increasing involvement of institutional investment in the U.S. cannabis sector.
“Pension funds typically invest with a long-term horizon and are viewed by many companies as ‘sticky money’ that doesn’t move in and out of stocks frequently,” said Craig Behnke, equity research analyst at Marijuana Business Daily.
“A rising investment appetite from investors with long-term outlooks could have positive benefits such as serving to de-risk early stage cannabis investing through more stable and consistent exit opportunities.”
The sector is waiting for a potential avalanche of such investment as the cannabis industry becomes increasingly normalized in the U.S.
That could be through eventual federal legalization or through the passage of various banking and state-related bills.
Innovative Industrial Properties trades on the New York Stock Exchange as IIPR.
As of July 19, the REIT owned 24 properties that were 100% leased to state-licensed MMJ operators, according to Innovative Industrial Properties’ website.
These properties comprise an aggregate of roughly 1.8 million rentable square feet (including approximately 481,000 rentable square feet under development or redevelopment) in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the company said.
