Cryptology Asset Group PLC (von GBC AG):
Original-Research: Cryptology Asset Group PLC - von GBC AG
Einstufung von GBC AG zu Cryptology Asset Group PLC
Unternehmen: Cryptology Asset Group PLC ISIN: MT0001770107
Anlass der Studie: Management Interview
Letzte Ratingänderung: -
Analyst: Felix Haugg, Julien Desrosiers
Cryptology Asset Group: 'We want to be the leading European investor in crypto assets and blockchain-based business models'
Cryptology Asset Group is a publicly traded investment company focused on cryp-to-assets and blockchain-based business models. For this purpose, Cryptology has a broad network of experts, including Christian Angermayer and Mike Novogratz, two of the most prominent faces in crypto, who are also among the founders and largest shareholders in the company. In the long term, the company aims to be-come Europe's leading holding company of the world's most successful crypto and blockchain companies. We spoke with the company's CEO Patrick Lowry about the prospects for crypto-assets and blockchain-based companies.
GBC AG: Mr. Lowry, please give us a brief overview of your company and strategy to get started.
Patrick Lowry: Cryptology Asset Group is a leading European investment company in crypto assets and blockchain-based business models. We invest in and help develop the most disruptive and innovative companies in the crypto and blockchain industry. Cryptology was founded in 2018 by Christian Angermayer's family office, Apeiron Investment Group, crypto-legend Mike Novogratz and Joram Voelklein.
GBC AG: Your portfolio includes some interesting companies, however most in-vestors will not be familiar with these holdings yet. Can you tell us more about your holdings?
Patrick Lowry: Cryptology currently has 6 portfolio companies after completing 3 new investments in Q1 this year. The two flagship companies are of course Block.one, the issuer of high-performance blockchain protocol EOS and one of the world's largest Bitcoin position holders, and Northern Data, a leading-HPC provider and Bitcoin min-ing host that is currently publicly traded in Germany. Rounding out the portfolio is glob-al crypto asset management group, Iconic Holding, commission-free neobroker nextmarkets, geospatial-platform provider cloudeo and our most recent investment, Bottlepay, a Bitcoin payment platform for micropayments. We are exceptionally proud of our portfolio companies and how they have grown over the past few years.
GBC AG: What requirements does a company have to meet for Cryptology Asset Group to invest in it?
Patrick Lowry: We focus primarily on the strength of the founding team and crypto business model when we look at new investment opportunities. This can also be com-panies whose core business isn't necessarily tied to crypto today, but where we see a clear crypto- or blockchain angle going forward, like for example with nextmarkets or cloudeo. We like companies that are able to create a so-called 'walled garden' around their unique product or service offering. Of course, we focus on companies almost exclusively in the blockchain and crypto space, but we are relatively agnostic and flexible as to investment size and industrial vertical. We believe blockchain will touch al-most every industry in some way and are excited to see the maturation of the block-chain industry become realized.
GBC AG: The crypto and blockchain industry is only at the beginning of its devel-opment. Please give us an outlook and your assessment of further development here. Do you also expect a large number of IPOs in this area in the coming years?
Patrick Lowry: The crypto and blockchain industries have been developing rapidly over the past decade and are now in position to scale immensely. I like comparing it's growth to the emergence of the internet in the 90's and early 2000's. With the internet you had new protocols being issued, but not many people building proper business cases around this new technology, inevitably leading to the tech-bubble bursting. Out of this tech-bubble, however, came companies such as Amazon, Google and Face-book who capitalized on leveraging the underlying internet technology to create user-friendly business models, becoming the world's most valuable companies in the pro-cess. In blockchain we are now witnessing the same phenomenon. The Coinbase IPO earlier this year was just the beginning of crypto and blockchain company IPOs with the future Google's and Amazon's of the decentralized world currently being built. We are excited to be investing in such companies.
GBC AG: You mostly invest in private equity companies. What is your strategic investment duration and is there a set exit strategy?
Patrick Lowry: Our founding investor, Christian Angermayer, has successfully com-pleted over 40 IPOs and acquisitions over the past few years, raising over EUR3 billion for his companies in the process. Leveraging this, Cryptology takes an active approach in not only developing and scaling our portfolio companies, but their exit and capital mar-kets strategy as well. We aim to bring our companies public when they are ready or introduce them to strategic partners which may lead to an exit via acquisition.
GBC AG: Can you give us a brief outlook and your expectations for Cryptology As-set Group in 2021?
Patrick Lowry: I believe 2021 will be remembered as the year that blockchain and crypto truly went mainstream and Cryptology is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this. We are excited by the caliber of companies we are seeing in our exclusive pipe-line of investment opportunities, and even more ecstatic by the performance of the companies we have already invested in. Cryptology is also exploring an international listing of its shares to increase liquidity for our investors and we are looking into poten-tially adding Bitcoin and other leading crypto assets to our balance sheet as a part of our ongoing treasury management strategy. Besides that we want to increase aware-ness in regards to our brand as well as to step up our media presence significantly. There is a lot in store for Cryptology and our investors in 2021.
GBC AG: For investors, the issue of sustainability/ESG is becoming increasingly important. How do you take this into account in your business and investments?
Patrick Lowry: The societal impact blockchain and cryptographic technology will have cannot be understated. It is the most revolutionary innovation since the emergence of the internet. 'With great power, comes great responsibility', and at Cryptology we take great pride in financing and helping build companies we believe will have an im-mensely positive societal impact and adhere to the highest standards of corporate governance. While Bitcoin's energy consumption is well documented, what is not commonly known is that most of its power comes from completely sustainable sources. We are proud our portfolio companies are actively exploring ways to reduce, and possible even eliminate, their carbon footprint through implementing sustainable best practices and leveraging renewable, natural resources.
GBC AG: Finally, can you give us a longer-term outlook/vision. Where will Cryptolo-gy Asset Group be in 3 to 5 years?
Patrick Lowry: As far as I am aware, we are currently Europe's leading investor in crypto assets and blockchain companies that is publicly traded. As the space continues to evolve and the adoption of crypto assets goes mainstream, I believe Cryptology has the opportunity to become one of the world's leading crypto and blockchain investment groups. I am excited to work alongside our exceptional team, founding investors and the entrepreneurs in our portfolio as we drive the adoption of crypto and blockchain together.
GBC AG: Patrick Lowry, thank you very much for the interview.
Die vollständige Analyse können Sie hier downloaden: http://www.more-ir.de/d/22422.pdf
Kontakt für Rückfragen
JJörg Grunwald
Vorstand
GBC AG
Halderstraße 27
86150 Augsburg
0821 / 241133 0
research@gbc-ag.de
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Date (time) of completion of English version: 10/05/2021 (11:09 am)
Date (time) of first distribution of English version: 10/05/2021 (12:30 pm)
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