Blue Star Capital PLC Chief Executive Officer Anthony Fabrizi up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the proposed further investment in SatoshiPay, the possibility of a full reverse, how their other investments are performing and the synergies between them
Q1: Now, after today’s announced acquisition you’ll own almost 20% of SatoshiPay, now that’s a large investment for a relatively small company like Blue Star Capital. You obviously like this company?
A1: Yes, we have very high hopes for SatoshiPay. We’ve only known the company for 4 or 5 months now but in that period we’ve got to know them very well, we think they’re in a very exciting place in the market but the potential there is very significant if they get this right. Actually, what Blue Star have been looking for, we’ve been looking for an opportunity to find a business where we can take a significant stake in a business that may have the potential to become a large business. So, yes, we’re very excited, we like the management team, we’re very keen on the space they’re in and we think the blockchain area is not really covered in the AIM market to any great extent and we hope it’s an exciting journey for all of us.
Q2: So, is this simply an investment or could it be a lead up to a full reverse of SatoshiPay at some future point?
A2: Well, obviously, Blue Star Capital is a very small company, lots of AIM-listed investment companies tend to be quite small. One of the options, obviously, with this type of company is potentially a reverse if something sounds particularly exciting and is looking to list on AIM then clearly Blue Star is potentially a vehicle for something. Is it our objective? It’s certainly something we would consider and provided SatoshiPay keeps developing the way we hope it will and they’re interested in listing on AIM then why not but there’s certainly no guarantee this will happen. We haven’t made the investment purely on that basis, we think it’s a very good investment and if the reverse was to eventually occur then that would be great.
Q3: How are your other investments in Blue Star Capital performing?
A3: Yes, we’re pleased with them actually. Sthaler, which we invested in 18 months ago, is a biometric business involved in payments, in fact is was actually on Sky News on Saturday getting a lot of attention. We like the company a lot, unfortunately at one stage we were considering a full reverse into Blue Star but they couldn’t do that but I think they’re raising more money at the moment so I’m sure it’s going to be at a significant premium to the round that we did last time. So, hopefully they’ll be some good news there.
Then on to Disruptive Tech Limited (DTL), which is our largest investment by some magnitude, their main investment is a company called VNU Group and VNU are a US business based around retail. They’re doing very well, they’re growing very quickly, currently in the process of raising quite a bit of capital to expand and we ‘re very hopeful that that will do very well.
So, for our 2 main investments we’re very pleased with and obviously, now we’ve got SatoshiPay which we have great hopes for. So, I think it’s a very small portfolio, very concentrated, but we’re very hopeful, they’re all good investments.
Q4: These companies, some of these could work side by side, is that something you’ve considered?
A4: Potentially, we haven’t really pursued that yet but certainly I think if they grow the way they might then I think there certainly is potential to cross-refer people and there could be some interesting synergies there.
