Looking for exposure in the global cannabis sector? Canopy Rivers (Canopy Rivers Stock Quote, Chart TSXV:RIV) is your best bet, says PI Financial analyst Devin Schilling. In a corporate update to clients Monday, Schilling puts a 12-month target price of $9.00 on the stock, which represents a projected return of 100.9 per cent at the time of publication.

Yesterday, cannabis investment firm Canopy Rivers announced a new joint venture with SaaS platform for the cannabis industry, LeafLink, to license the latter’s B2B marketplace and supply chain technology platform for regulated markets around the world, calling the JV LeafLink Services International.

The largest B2B marketplace for cannabis brands, LeafLink’s platform has over 950 brands, penetration throughout 16 territories in the United States and approximately 2,800 cannabis retailers. The joint venture will see an initial capital contribution of US$1 million from LeafLink and an initial equity investment of US$2 million from RIV, with the option to invest an incremental US$6 million on preferred terms. LeafLink will hold 82 per cent and Canopy Rivers will hold 18 per cent of LeafLink International.

Schilling rates the impact of the event as a positive for RIV.

“This new joint venture is capital-light and highly scalable which can be rapidly deployed into legal international cannabis jurisdictions. We note that LeafLink International has already launched in Saskatchewan and we expect further deployment into additional Canadian provinces (both private and public retail environments) as well as potentially into Europe for their emerging CBD marketplace,” says Schilling.

The analyst is maintaining his “Buy” rating and $9.00 target.