Update on Investment Portfolio

RNS Number : 7007X

Blue Star Capital plc

06 May 2021

 

  6 May 2021

Blue Star Capital plc

("Blue Star" or the "Company")

Update on Investment Portfolio

Blue Star Capital plc (AIM: BLU), the investing company with a focus on esports, payments, technology and its applications within media and gaming, provides a general update in respect of certain of its investee companies.

Guild Esports plc ("Guild")

Guild was admitted to the Official List and started trading on the standard segment of the London Stock Exchange in October 2020 to take advantage of the growing esports markets.  It is Guild's intention to create a leading global esports franchise by establishing its own teams, player training and talent scouting and associated management of branding, advertising and media rights.

Since its admission to trading, Guild has already achieved a number of important milestones, including attracting a number of sponsorship deals including Subway, a European fintech Company and Hyper X, a gaming peripheral brand. Further Guild has launched merchandising opportunities including in-game decals and a clothing range.

Guild has continued to expand its team and player signing, with both team acquisitions and the signing of top-ranked players to compete in tournaments for games such as Fortnite, Valorant, Rocket League and FIFA.  In March 2021, Guild won its first major trophy in the European Grand Finals of the Fortnite Champion Series, which was followed by a second trophy win at the EU Spring Regional Rocket League Champion Series in April 2021.

Blue Star has, to date, invested approximately £706,000 in Guild, and holds approximately a 5.95 per cent of the issued share capital of Guild valuing its investment, at the current share price of 6.65 pence, at approximately £2 million.

Dynasty eSports Pts ("Dynasty")

Dynasty is a Singapore-based business which has developed its esports portal management ("EPM") platform to combine the esports ecosystem of community, competition, player engagements and monetisation. Initially targeting the Malaysian market, Dynasty signed a five-year partnership with the Malaysia Esports Federation in June 2020 to provide its EPM platform.

Since June 2020, Dynasty has gone on to sign a number of other SaaS agreements for the provision of its platform, notably to the largest telecoms carrier in the Middle East to launch a branded Dynasty platform in a number of the region's key esports and gaming countries.

Dynasty has successfully raised additional funding, most recently in April 2021 in which Blue Star participated, raising US$5 million and increasing Dynasty's post-money valuation to US$50 million. This funding will allow Dynasty to continue to develop its EPM platform, with the intention to focus on enhanced player personalisation, games publishing, rights management and the use of AI to support an automated experience in coaching and media creation.

Dynasty recently announced its intention to seek an IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) within the next 12 months.

To date, the Company has invested approximately £895,000 in Dynasty and, based on Dynasty's valuation of US$50 million in this latest fundraising round, the Company's holding in Dynasty is valued at approximately US$6.5 million (approximately £4.6 million).

SatoshiPay

SatoshiPay is a fintech company supplying payment and money transfer infrastructure based on blockchain technology to digital industries and globally operating SMEs. Having initially focussed on building a micropayment infrastructure and platform the decision was taken just over a year ago to use the same technology and experience to move into B2B cross border payments service for businesses. The reaction to this new product has been positive and the Board are encouraged by recent developments.

SatoshiPay announced the launch of its B2B payments platform DTransfer in September 2020 to facilitate cross-border payments for businesses by integrating currency exchange into each transaction.

In December 2020, SatoshiPay announced it had signed an agreement with German Bankhaus von der Heydt to become the first user of the bank's fully compliant Euro-backed stablecoin ("EURB") which it is integrating with DTransfer.

This agreement provides SatoshiPay with a stable on and off-ramp for EURB transactions with instant EUR-based bank transfers within the Single Euro Payments Area (which comprises 36 European member-states) allowing users with an easy solution to instantly send and receive euro-based payments.

The Company awaits further updates from SatoshiPay and will update the market in due course.

To date, the Company has invested approximately £1.9 million in SatoshiPay. Based on the value of SatoshiPay's last fund raise, Blue Star's investment is valued at approximately £4.9 million.

Other Investment Highlights

As announced on 16 April 2021, Blue Star invested in NFT Investments plc, an investment company targeting non-fungible tokens, a specialised class of assets that certifies authenticity and proof of ownership of digital assets.

Blue Star has invested a total of £250,000 in NFT Investments plc at both pre-ipo and ipo rounds at an average price of £0.027 pence per share, now valuing the Company's investment at £342,000.

Leaf Mobile inc. ("Leaf") in which the Company invested CAD$100,000 in April 2020, completed the acquisition of East Side Games Inc. for approximately CAD$159 million in February 2021 and commenced trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.  More recently, Leaf announced revenue of $80.5M in for the year ended 31 December 2020, representing a 116 per cent. increase over 2019 revenue of CAD$37.2 million.

The share price for Leaf is currently trading at approximately CAD$0.47 per share valuing Blue Star's holding in Leaf at approximately CAD$293,750.

Derek Lew, CEO of Blue Star commented, "This latest market update supports Blue Star's strategy of investing in early-stage disruptive tech businesses that make up our portfolio. We strongly believe that we are well positioned to benefit from the growth in esports, gaming, fintech and now most recently NFTs."

For further information, please contact:

Blue Star Capital plc	[phone]
Derek Lew
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP	[phone]
(Nominated Adviser)
Jo Turner / Liam Murray / Mark Rogers
S tanford Capital Partners Limited (Broker) Patrick Claridge / John Howes / Bob Pountney	[phone]

About Blue Star Capital

Blue Star is an investing company with a focus on new technologies. Blue Star's investments include a 27.7% holding in SatoshiPay, a payments business using blockchain technology; investments in 6 early stage esports companies with shareholdings ranging from 6% to 13.6% and a 0.9% investment in Sthaler, an identity and payments technology business which enables a consumer to identify themselves and pay using just their finger.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, and projections about its industry; its beliefs; and assumptions. Words such as 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'seeks,' 'estimates,' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, are difficult to predict, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements. The Company cautions shareholders and prospective shareholder holders not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the view of the Company only as of the date of this announcement. The forward-looking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. The Company will not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions or updates to these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.

 

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