BitGold (
TSX: V.XAU,
Stock Forum) continued to advance on its make gold accessible and useful in digital payments and secure savings when the market darling announced today that it had entered into an acquisition agreement to buy up the operating and intellectual property assets of GoldMoney Network, one of the world’s largest private managers of precious metal assets.
According to the
news release, the transaction will be carried out through the issuance of 11.2 million common shares in BitGold, valued at approximately $51.9 million based on the company’s closing price on May 21
st.
The deal is expected to close in the next 60 days and is still subject to customary closing conditions.
The company expects the acquisition to bring GoldMoney’s innovation and world-renowned integrity onto BitGold’s platform while preserving the relationships that GoldMoney has established with its customer base and enhancing its pre-existing services with payment technologies.
The transaction will also bring over $1.5 billion in customer assets to the company’s ledger with the potential to develop new payment market relationships from over 135,000 sign-ups on GoldMoney.com.
It is anticipated that applying new technologies, analytics and location intelligent language/currency engines will significantly expand markets which have already produced over GBP 3.1 billion in cumulative gross sales revenue for GoldMoney over the last decade.
GoldMoney is currently owned by investor industry heavy-hitters such as James Turk, IAMGOLD Corporation, Fleming family and Eric Sprott, co-founder of Sprott Inc, based in Jersey, British Channel Islands and regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission.
Company CEO, Roy Sebag, commented on the transformative deal, “We are thrilled by the potential of this BitGold and GoldMoney combination, two companies with shared values and a common vision and purpose.”
He went on to explain, “You will not find a precious metals asset manager with more integrity than the one built by Geoff and James Turk and the GoldMoney team. With the technology of the BitGold platform we can expand the GoldMoney legacy of trust, security, and a client centric purpose to new markets, growing from a much stronger base and benefiting all stakeholders.”
Then stated, “Combining the first global e-marketplace for gold with the latest and most innovative, we instantly become the world’s largest and most active bullion money service.”
James Turk, founder of GoldMoney, added, “The combination of BitGold and GoldMoney has the potential to create significant value for the clients and shareholder of both companies.”
Then illustrated, “We created GoldMoney with the vision of making gold accessible for savings and payments, a vision that BitGold is rapidly expanding in a new era of cloud computing and mobile technology. Together we will continue to operate GoldMoney with the same level of security, integrity and premium customer service, but GoldMoney clients will now have access to expanded payment options, a gold debit card, and the many applications and features being developed by this innovative team. Josh and Roy understand money and gold as well as anyone I’ve met.”
And finally concluded, “Their energy, vision, and dedication to expand this platform are truly remarkable. I am honored to be joining the combined board along with two of my fellow GoldMoney directors, Mahendra Naik and Hector Fleming.”
Investors were anxious for updates as trading was halted by the IIROC this morning shortly after the company’s news release.
BitGold was in the news recently when
the Toronto-based company completed a successful IPO a little over a week ago.
Currently there are 36.6m outstanding shares with a market cap of $170.3 million.