9 April 2018
Vela Technologies plc
("Vela" or the "Company")
Non-regulatory: Update re. BTL Group Ltd
The Board of Vela (AIM: VELA), the investing company focused on early-stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments, notes that BTL Group Ltd ("BTL") has announced today the filing of its audited consolidated financial statements and its management's discussion and analysis for the year ended 31 December 2017. BTL has announced that these documents can be accessed from BTL's website at www.btl.co or the SEDAR website.
Vela holds, as at the date of this announcement, 620,000 common shares in BTL equivalent to approximately 2.6 per cent. of BTL's issued share capital. BTL is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, on which the closing mid-market price on 6 April 2018 of BTL's common shares was C$4.74 per share which values Vela's shareholding in BTL at approximately C$2.94 million (equivalent to £1.63 million*).
Extracts from the BTL announcement are copied below:
BTL™ Files Year Ended 2017 Financials and Results
BTL GROUP LTD. (TSX Venture:BTL) ("BTL" or the "Company") today announces it has filed its audited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended 31st December 2017. These documents can be accessed from the www.btl.cowebsite or the SEDAR website.
BTL is a technology provider that has been developing InterbitTM, a token free, blockchain platform that will enable absolute privacy of metadata and rapid application development in a practical design framework. Interbit's unique "chain joining capability" has the capacity to inter-connect many thousands of Interbit blockchains per solution, in a completely private, secure and horizontally scalable manner. As previously announced, Interbit will available on April 23rd for testing and feedback on http://interbit.io.
The Company reported revenues from its Energy Trading Project of $372,927 (2016 - $410,670) and a net loss of $5,873,570 (2016 - $1,937,482) for its fiscal year 2017. The Company completed three financings during 2017 and had a cash position of $17,998,870 as at December 31st, 2017. On March 30, 2018, BTL's cash position was $16,700,000.
Highlights from 2017
· The key and critical pilot project BTL conducted in 2017 was the adoption of Interbit by a consortium of large European energy companies to track natural gas trades from the point of inception through to trade reconciliation (see the Company's June 5, 2017 press release).
· The Company also filed patents on the Interbit platform and the underlying Hypervisor architecture (see the Company's October 17, 2017 press release). Interbit is a new generation blockchain platform with "unique chain joining capability" with the capacity to inter-connect many thousands of Interbit blockchains.
Outlook
· The Company's goals for 2018 is to focus on the release of Interbit, and its subsequent third party software audit. Supported by global marketing campaigns, the Company's existing and growing customer base and extensive partner community is expected to drive user-adoption of Interbit.
· In further news, Interbit will co-host Coindesk's international Building Blocks Hackathon in New York City on May 12th, as part of the 2018 Consensus show. Together with IBM, Microsoft, Ethereum and more, Interbit will mentor, present and serve as a judge of the application building challenge hosting over 200 developers from around the world.
· The Company continues to build its professional sales and delivery teams to support commercial opportunities with customers in financial services, natural resource and supply chain verticals. The significant sales and marketing investment by the Company will also attempt to educate and highlight the differences between Interbit, a next generation blockchain platform, from the highly volatile cryptocurrency markets. Blockchain has been historically associated with supporting cryptocurrencies but the technology and wider commercial benefits of blockchain are far broader. Interbit is a technology platform that will result in significant and fundamental computing advantages over current systems and traditional operating platforms.
ABOUT BTLTM AND INTERBITTM
Listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX Venture:BTL) and operating from both Canada and the UK with offices in Vancouver, Calgary and London, BTL is a technology platform provider that owns Interbit, a next generation blockchain platform which enables business applications to be built quickly, easily and securely.
Interbit can be licensed by developers and businesses who can build and share their own applications in a trusted ecosystem, allowing them to embrace new revenue generating opportunities. Interbit meets the speed, scale and privacy that older generations of blockchain technology cannot achieve by using chain joining technology to connect multiple blockchains. It offers a simpler, more secure, new way of computing.
Website: www.btl.co & www.interbit.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blockchainltd & https://twitter.com/interbit
Videos: https://youtu.be/YFOH0YEHLak & https://youtu.be/eWI-0AXaZgc
For further information please contact:
Dominic McCann, CEO
Phone: +1 855 256 5246
Email: [email protected]
Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include further development of BTL's business relationships and business and the timing, development and success of BTL's technologies and products, and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, the development of competitive technologies, the marketplace acceptance of BTL's technologies and products, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in BTL's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2017 available at www.sedar.com, many of which are beyond the control of BTL. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, BTL disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, BTL undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
*Based on the exchange rate as on 9 April 2018 of C$1: GB0.5542
For further information, please contact:
Vela Technologies plc |
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Brent Fitzpatrick, Non-Executive Chairman Antony Laiker, Director |
Tel: +44 (0) 7802 262 443 |
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Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser) |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656 |
Nick Athanas/Katrina Perez/Asha Chotai |
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Smaller Company Capital Limited (Broker) |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3651 2910 |
Rupert Williams/Jeremy Woodgate |
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