(Bloomberg) -- A tiny Vancouver-based cannabis company whose former ticker was YOLO, short for “you only live once,” was declared the winner of the POT stock-symbol lottery in Canada.
Weekend Unlimited Inc. shares surged as much as 65 percent in early trading after the pot firm said Friday that it won the first-ever random lottery for a Canadian ticker symbol. The company debuted on the Canadian Securities Exchange on Oct. 15, two days before the country legalized recreational marijuana. The stock had fallen 57 percent since the Oct. 15 market close, bringing its market value to C$28.6 million before trading opened Friday.
The cannabis-themed symbol, formerly belonging to Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, came up for grabs on Canadian exchanges this week and approximately 40 companies applied for it, according to a spokeswoman for TMX Group Ltd., which owns the Toronto Stock Exchange. As a result of the high demand, the exchanges held their first lottery to determine the winner.
“The POT lottery served to raise the profile of Canada's leadership in legal recreational cannabis and we believe it will also serve to raise Weekend Unlimited's profile,” Chief Executive Officer Paul Chu said in a statement Friday.
The YOLO ticker may find new life in another pot-related security, as the AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol.
Weekend Unlimited will begin trading under the new ticker on Monday.
To contact the reporter on this story: Kristine Owram in Toronto at kowram@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net
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