Parallel Cannabis' Lawsuit Exposes ETF's iShares, YOLO

Early in March, Parallel Cannabis, a vertically-integrated cannabis company that operates in several states, including Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania, was sued by investors of its subsidiary Surterra Wellness. Investors suggest management indebted the firm intentionally to exit with a profit.

The lawsuit has exposed the company’s defaults on its debt obligations and Curaleaf CURLF and revealed in its filings that Parallel was no longer buying its Illinois properties due to lack of financing.

“Curaleaf could sue Parallel or just shop the properties for someone else,” reported Debra Borchardt for Green Market Report.

Parallel’s default could bring problems for the cannabis REIT (real estate investment trust) Innovative Industrial Properties IIPR as 10% of IIPR rental revenues in 2021 came from Parallel.

“These properties are located in some of the largest and strongest growth markets (PA and FL), in addition to TX, one of the largest states by population and estimated illicit cannabis consumption, where there continue to be significant inroads toward expansion of the existing program,” a spokesperson from IIP told Green Market.

ETFs holding the shares of IIP, such as iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) and AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF YOLO, are also exposed.

 “The largest holder of IIPR is the iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR), with approximately 1.71M shares. Investors may also find of interest that the ETF with the largest allocation to IIPR stock is AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF (YOLO), with a portfolio weight of 16.94%. On average, U.S. ETFs allocate 1.08% of IIPR to their portfolios," Borchardt wrote following data from ETF.com 

Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash.