Original-Research: 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 flexi-
ble 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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http://www.gbc-ag.de/de/Offenlegung
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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)
-------------------übermittelt durch die EQS Group AG.-------------------Für den Inhalt der Mitteilung bzw. Research ist alleine der Herausgeber bzw.
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