Vela Technologies investment in combination negotiations

The AIM-traded investing company focused on early-stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments said that BTL had entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Xapcash Technologies.

Vela held 700,000 shares in BTL, representing a 5% equity interest in its fully-diluted issued share capital. BTL remained listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in Toronto.

BTL and Xapcash were currently working together on new blockchain-based remittance products using Xapcash's front-end remittance product and BTL's back-end platform to transmit funds globally, efficiently and at a significantly reduced cost.

"This year is of strategic importance to BTL as we aim to penetrate the global remittance market with our blockchain solutions and start building revenues and margin," commented Guy Halford-Thompson, CEO of BTL.

"The addition of Xapcash, and its management and blockchain expertise advances this strategy."

It was reported that the letter of intent was to be superseded by a definitive agreement to be signed on or before 4 March.

Consideration for the acquisition was in the form of 220,000 common shares of BTL, valuing the transaction at CAD 147,000 (£74,800) based on BTL's last closing price of CAD 0.67 per share.

"We are delighted that so soon after our investment, BTL is demonstrating once again how it is starting to put the pieces of the jigsaw together," said Vela executive director Antony Laiker.

"This transaction brings together the front-end product offered by Xapcash and Interbit, BTL's back-end remittance platform. We hope to see more exciting news from this collaboration in the future," he added.