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INFOR Financial Inc.’s Neil Selfe quickly grasped the significance of what was before him last summer.

Canopy Growth Corp., one of Canada’s largest licensed producer of medical marijuana, had sought INFOR’s advice on a possible deal with U.S. alcoholic beverage giant Constellation Brands Inc.

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“And we unequivocally said ‘if you can make that deal work, from a financial standpoint, it is such a game-changer that you have to do it,’” Selfe, Infor’s CEO and managing principal, said in an interview.

It is kind of this opportunity to create a global champion or two

The transaction was announced on Oct. 30. Constellation, a Fortune 500 company that sells Corona beer, would pay approximately $245 million for a 9.9-per-cent stake in Canopy, a Smiths Falls, Ont.-based outfit whose growing facilities include the site of a former Hershey chocolate factory.

“We realized that it was going to be hugely meaningful for the sector because, prior to that point in time, very few large institutional investors were invested in the cannabis space,” Selfe said of INFOR, which acted as financial adviser to Canopy on the deal.