TIDMBLU
RNS Number : 4573D
Blue Star Capital plc
29 June 2021
29 June 2021
Blue Star Capital plc
("Blue Star" or "the Company")
Half-yearly Results for the six months ended 31 March 2021
Chief Executive's Statement
I am pleased to report Blue Star's half-yearly results for the
period ended 31 March 2021.
Financials
Blue Star reported a loss for the period of GBP494,543 compared
with a loss of GBP189,460 for the six months ended 31 March 2020,
with the increase mainly accounted for by adverse foreign exchange
movements on the investment portfolio.
Net assets increased to GBP8,927,019 compared to GBP5,969,917
for the six months ended 31 March 2020. Subsequent to the period
end, portfolio company Dynasty Esports PTE successfully completed a
financing round resulting in a post-money valuation of USD$50
million in April 2021. Having exercised our antidilution rights to
maintain our holding at 13 per cent, Blue Star's investment, based
on this valuation, increased from approximately GBP1,300,000 to
approximately GBP4,600,000 which is expected to be reflected in the
Company's full year net assets.
Blue Star's cash position at 31 March 2021 was GBP59,491
compared to a balance of GBP7,379 at 31 March 2020. Following the
period end, in April 2021, the Company raised approximately GBP1.02
million by way of a placing of new shares and subsequently made a
further investment approximately GBP466,000 into Dynasty eSports
Pte and GBP200,000 into the NFT Investments plc.
Portfolio Highlights
Blue Star Capital provides exposure to a portfolio of primarily
unquoted companies in high growth sectors. Our Portfolio consists
of 11 companies, eight with a focus on esports or gaming and three
blockchains/payments. We provide the following portfolio company
highlights, inclusive of updates for the six-month period ended 31
March 2021 and any subsequent developments.
Esports
The global esports market is a rapidly growing economy. An
audience of nearly 500 million viewers regularly stream competitive
gaming tournaments and related content. In terms of revenues, the
industry exceeded US$1bn for the first time in 2019 and is forecast
to reach over US$1.5bn by 2023, from sources including sponsorship,
media rights, merchandise and tickets.
The growing professionalisation of the esports industry has been
attracting increasing investment capital into the space and Blue
Star has made investments in a portfolio of exciting early-stage
businesses.
Dynasty Esports PTE
Since June 2020, Dynasty has signed a number of Software as a
Service (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.
With Blue Star's participation, in April 2021, Dynasty raised US
$5 million on a post-money valuation of US $50 million. This
funding will allow Dynasty to continue to develop its Esports
Platform Management platform, with the intention to focus on
enhanced player personalisation, games publishing, rights
management and the use of Al to support automated experience in
coaching and media creation.
Following the successful fundraising in April 2021, Dynasty
further announced its intention to seek an IPO on the Australian
Stock Exchange (ASX) within 12 months. Additionally, Dynasty
reported two key hires to the senior leadership team, David Baxby
as Dynasty's Chairman and Daniel Horan as Dynasty's Chief Customer
Officer. David has over 25 years of service in executive positions
and brings over 10 years of public company non-executive
directorship experience, including as CEO of Asia Pacific Region
for Virgin Group and co-CEO of Virgin Group, the $6 billion family
office with responsibility for all of Virgin Group's global
investments. Daniel has more than 20 years of experience performing
in key executive positions for leading telecommunications (and
related) companies, including as Chief Commercial Officer for
Vodafone Qatar and Chief Marketing Officer for Axis Indonesia
(formerly a Saudi Telecom Company). During the last 10 years, David
was involved in bringing a number of platform-based commercial
partnerships to life for the telcos he has represented, including
Spotify, NBA, Disney, Netflix and Google. Daniel brings working
knowledge of how large telecommunications companies operate and has
experience creating and building successful platform ecosystem
partnerships.
Guild Esports plc
Since its admission to trading on the standard segment of the
London Stock Exchange in October 2020, Guild has achieved a number
of milestones, including attracting major sponsorship deals
including Subway, a European fintech Company, Hyper X, a gaming
peripheral brand, and Samsung. Guild has launched merchandising
opportunities including in-game decals and a clothing range that
has a social following of over 10.5 million.
Guild has successfully built teams comprised of top-ranked
players to compete in major tournaments for Fortnite (ranked 1 in
Europe), Valorant (ranked 5 in Europe), Rocket League (ranked 4 in
Europe) and FIFA (ranked 7 in Europe).
Guild achieved success with two recent titles; in March 2021,
Guild achieved its first trophy win in the European Grand finals of
the Fortnite Champion Series. This was followed by a second trophy
win at the EU Spring Regional Rocket League Champion Series in
April 2021.
Blockchain/Payments
SatoshiPay
In the period under review, SatoshiPay entered into an agreement
with German Bankhaus von der Heydt in December 2020 to become the
first user of the bank's fully compliant Euro-backed stablecoin
("EURB"), which will be integrated with DTransfer. The agreement
provides SatoshiPay with a stable on- and off-ramp for EURB
transactions with instant EUR-based bank transfers within the
single Europe payments area.
More recently, SatoshiPay on a pre- money valuation of GBP19m,
announced a research and development grant to assist it with
building Pendulum, a suite of open, decentralised protocols on
which smart contracts can be developed and executed. It is the
intention for Pendulum to act as a second layer on top of Stellar,
with additional bridges to two of the most popular smart contract
platforms, Ethereum and Polkadot.
Sthaler Limited
In July 2021, Sthaler announced that, FinGo, the fintech behind
the world's first biometric identity authentication and payments
platform, had entered a strategic partnership with Mastercard to
provide it with access to the white labelled Mastercard Payment
Gateway Services which it considers will enable FinGo to grow its
footprint internationally.
Sthaler reported that with digital payments on the rise and an
increased focus on security, FinGo's biometric authentication will
make payments simpler, quicker and more secure.
Leaf Mobile ("Leaf")
LEAF completed the acquisition of East Side Games Inc. for
approximately CAD$159 million in February 2021 and graduated from
the TSX Venture Exchange to commence trading on the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
In April 2021, 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.
On 8 February 2021, Blue Star's then CEO, Tony Fabrizi,
announced his retirement. We would like to thank Tony for his 10
years of leadership at Blue Star, during which time the portfolio
of companies, including those discussed above, were acquired. With
Tony's departure, Brian Rowbotham, a capital markets veteran with
over 30 years of experience, joined the Blue Star board of
directors. Brian is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales, has held Board positions in
stockbroking and fund management and has worked on a number of
successful flotations, acquisitions and disposals. He has also held
non-executive directorships in a number of quoted and unquoted
companies.
During the period, the board restructured directors'
compensation to better align the interests of each director with
Blue Star's shareholders. In this regard, aggregate salaries have
been reduced and Blue Star intends to put in place a management
incentive scheme, which it did not previously have, with time and
performance criteria.
Outlook
The recent esports announcements relating to Guild and Dynasty
have helped to illustrate the upside from our esports investment
portfolio and the Board remains highly confident that this area of
investment offers the potential for a significant improvement in
net asset value. Our long-term shareholdings in payment companies
SatoshiPay and Sthaler continue to progress and, while taking time
to mature, provide another exciting area of investment. Overall, we
are pleased with progress over the period, and, in particular, the
further advances made since the period end, and look to the future
with confidence.
Derek Lew
Chief Executive
Blue Star Capital plc
Derek Lew, Chief Executive +44 20 3608 3019
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP
Nominated Adviser
Jo Turner / Liam Murray
+44 20 7213 0880
Stanford Capital Partners Limited
Broker
Patrick Claridge / John Howes / Bob
Pountney +44 20 3815 8880
Statement of Comprehensive Income
for the six months ended 31 March 2021
Unaudited Audited
Year ended
Six months ended 31 March 30 September
-------------
2021 2020 2020
Note GBP GBP GBP
Revenue - - -
Loss arising from investments
held at fair value through
profit or loss: (19,684) - 2,056,698
Other fair value losses - (8,414) -
(19,684) (8,414) 2,056,698
Foreign exchange movements (318,991) (8,849) 135,241
Administrative expenses (159,379) (172,245) (484,400)
------------- ------------ --------------
Operating loss (498,054) (189,508) 1,707,539
Finance income 3,511 48 6,616
Loss before and after
taxation and total comprehensive
income for the period (494,543) (189,460) 1,714,155
------------- ------------ --------------
Loss per ordinary share:
Basic (loss)/earnings
per share 3 (0.01p) (0.01p) 0.05p
Diluted (loss)/earnings
per share 3 (0.01p) (0.01p) 0.05p
------------- ------------ --------------
The loss for the period was derived from continuing operations
and is attributable to equity shareholders.
Statement of Financial Position
as at 31 March 2021
Unaudited Audited
Year ended
Six months ended 31 March 30 September
-----------------------
2021 2020 2020
Note GBP GBP GBP
Non-current assets
Investments 8,740,719 5,820,215 9,063,432
Convertible loan note 143,725 - 156,181
------------------------ --------------------- -----------------------
8,884,444 5,820,215 9,219,613
Current assets
Trade and other receivables 18,813 166,103 2,668
Cash and cash equivalents 59,491 7,379 132,167
------------------------ --------------------- -----------------------
78,304 173,482 134,835
Total assets 8,962,748 5,993,697 9,354,448
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables 35,729 23,780 27,886
------------------------ --------------------- -----------------------
Total current liabilities 35,729 23,780 27,886
------------------------ --------------------- -----------------------
Net assets 8,927,019 5,969,917 9,326,562
Shareholders' equity
Share capital 4 4,228,251 3,092,584 4,133,251
Share premium account 4 9,074,957 8,852,724 9,074,957
Other reserves 96,290 64,190 143,210
Retained earnings (4,472,479) (6,039,581) (4,024,856)
------------------------ --------------------- -----------------------
8,927,019 5,969,917 9,326,562
Statement of changes in equity as at 31 March 2021
Share Share Other Retained
capital premium reserves earnings Total
GBP GBP GBP GBP GBP
Six months ended
31 March 2021
At 1 October 2020 4,133,251 9,074,957 143,210 (4,024,856) 9,326,562
Loss for the period
and total comprehensive
income - - - (494,543) (494,543)
Shares issued in
period 95,000 - - - 95,000
Exercise of warrants - - (29,716) 29,716 -
Lapse of warrants - - (17,204) 17,204 -
------------- ---------------- ------------- ----------------- ---------------
At 31 March 2021 4,228,251 9,074,957 96,290 (4,472,479) 8,927,019
Six months ended
31 March 2020
At 1 October 2019 2,142,584 8,852,724 64,190 (5,850,121) 5,209,377
Loss for the period
and
total comprehensive
income - - - (189,460) (189,460)
Shares issued in
period 950,000 - - - 950,000
------------- ---------------- ------------- --------------- -------------
At 31 March 2020 3,092,584 8,852,724 64,190 (6,039,581) 5,969,917
Year ended
30 September 2020
At 1 October 2019 2,142,584 8,852,724 64,190 (5,850,121) 5,209,377
Profit for the year
and total
comprehensive income - - - 1,714,155 1,714,155
Shares issued in
year 1,990,667 277,833 - - 2,268,500
Share issue costs - (55,600) - - (55,600)
Lapse of warrants - - (64,190) 64,190
Exercise of warrants - - (46,920) 46,920 -
Share based payment - - 190,130 - 190,130
At 30 September
2020 4,133,251 9,074,957 143,210 (4,024,856) 9,326,562
Statement of cash flows
for the six months ended 31 March 2021
Unaudited Audited
Year ended
Six months ended 31 March 30 September
--------------------------- -------------
2021 2020 2020
GBP GBP GBP
Operating activities
(Loss)/profit for the period (494,543) (189,460) 1,714,155
Adjustments for:
Finance income (3,511) (48) (6,616)
Fair value losses/(gains) 19,684 8,414 (2,056,698)
Foreign exchange 315,486 - (134,636)
Share based payment net
charge - - 190,130
Working capital adjustments
(Increase)/decrease in trade
and other receivables (16,145) (155,828) 7,003
Increase/(decrease) in trade
and other payables 7,842 467 4,575
------------- ------------ -------------
Net cash used in operating
activities (171,187) (336,455) (282,087)
------------- ------------ -------------
Investing activities
Increase in investments - (727,042) (1,769,909)
Purchase of convertible
loan notes - (156,181)
Interest received 3,511 48 6,616
------------- ------------ -------------
Net cash generated from/
(used in) investing activities 3,511 (726,994) (1,919,474)
------------- ------------ -------------
Financing activities
Proceeds from issue of equity
shares 95,000 950,000 2,268,500
Share issue costs - - (55,600)
------------- ------------ -------------
Net cash generated by financing
activities 95,000 950,000 2,212,900
------------- ------------ -------------
Net (decrease)/ increase
in cash and cash equivalents (72,676) (113,449) 11,339
Cash and cash equivalents
at beginning of the period 132,167 120,828 120,828
------------- ------------ -------------
Cash and cash equivalents
at end of the period 59,491 7,379 132,167
------------- ------------ -------------
Notes to the Interim Financial Statements for the six months
ended 31 March 2021
1. Basis of preparation
The principal accounting policies used for preparing the Interim
Accounts are those the Company expects to apply in its financial
statements for the year ending 30 September 2021 and are unchanged
from those disclosed in the Company's Report and Financial
Statements for the year ending 30 September 2020.
The financial information for the six months ended 31 March 2021
and for the six months ended 31 March 2020 have neither been
audited nor reviewed by the Company's auditors.
2. Critical accounting estimates and judgements
The Company makes certain estimates and assumptions regarding
the future. Estimates and judgements are continually evaluated
based on historical experience and other factors, including
expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable
under the circumstances. In the future, actual experience may
differ from these estimates and assumptions. The estimates and
assumptions that have a significant risk of causing a material
adjustment to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within
the next financial year are discussed below:
Fair value of financial instruments:
The Company holds investments that have been designated at fair
value through profit or loss on initial recognition. The Company
determines the fair value of these financial instruments that are
not quoted, using valuation techniques, contained in the IPEVC
guidelines. These techniques are significantly affected by certain
key assumptions. Other valuation methodologies such as discounted
cash flow analysis assess estimates of future cash flows and it is
important to recognise that in that regard, the derived fair value
estimates cannot always be substantiated by comparison with
independent markets and, in many cases, may not be capable of being
realised immediately.
In certain circumstances, where fair value cannot be readily
established, the Company is required to make judgements over
carrying value impairment, and evaluate the size of any impairment
required.
3. Loss per ordinary share
The calculation of a basic loss per share is based on the loss
for the period attributable to equity holders of the Company and on
the weighted average number of shares in issue during the
period.
4. Share capital
On 9 November 2020, 95,000,000 new ordinary shares were issued
at a price of 0.1p per share from the exercise of 95,000,000
warrants. The exercise has raised GBP95,000.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
IR SELSMUEFSELM
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 29, 2021 02:45 ET (06:45 GMT)
Blue Star Capital (LSE:BLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Blue Star Capital (LSE:BLU)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024