Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/554714
a u g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 www.resourceworld.com 39 iNvESTmENTS BitGold investors off to a wild start On MAy 13, BitGold inc. [XAU-TSXV] began trading on the Venture Exchange. Following a merger with Loma Vista Capital Inc. and listed at 90ยข, shares took off like a rocket, peaking at about $8.00, leveled out around $4.00 and took off again. As of August 4, BitGold shares were trading at $5.67. So just what is BitGold and why all the investor excitement? Founded by Roy Sebag and Josh Crumb, BitGold is an Internet platform that enables clients to buy and store physical gold that can be used to pay for goods and services with gold as currency anywhere in the world. The company uses a proprietary order book and trade engine called Aurum. Gold is a real store of value, yet is awkward to buy things with it. BitGold has solved this problem. Since the global price of gold is fixed daily, it doesn't matter in what country you live or what currency you use. BitGold solves the historical challenges of the efficient pricing and fast settlement of real gold purchases. Purchasers of gold are also assured their real gold is stored in vaults administered by Brinks and insured by Lloyd's of London. BitGold's vaults are in London, Toronto, Zurich, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company buys gold for its clients through the London Bullion Market and COMEX. BitGold revenues are generated by a 1% fee on purchases or redemptions. What if you want delivery of your physical gold? You can accept delivery in the form of 1 kilogram bars or 10-gram cubes that are worth about $400. On May 22, BitGold announced the acquisition of GoldMoney Network Ltd., subject to customary approvals, which is valued at CDN $51.9 million. One of the world's largest private man- agers of precious metal assets, GoldMoney has over CDN $1.5 billion in assets under vault management. The acquisition will be satisfied by BitGold issuing 11,169,794 shares and $4.65 per share. The GoldMoney Network is owned by James Turk, iAMGold Corp. [IMG-TSX; IAG-NYSE], the Fleming family and Eric Sprott, founder of Sprott Inc. GoldMoney has over 135,000 client signups. The GoldMoney acquisition is a big step in growing BitGold. "We are thrilled by the potential of this BitGold and GoldMoney combination, two companies with shared values and a common vision and purpose," said Roy Sebag,. "You will not find a precious metals asset manager with more integrity than the one built by Geoff and James Turk and the GoldMoney team. With the technology of the BitGold platform we can expand the GoldMoney legacy of trust, security, and a client centric purpose to new markets, growing from a much stronger base and benefit- ing all stakeholders. Combining the first global e-marketplace for gold with the latest and most innovative, we instantly become the world's largest and most active bullion money service." "The combination of BitGold and GoldMoney has the poten- tial to create significant value for the clients and shareholder of both companies," said James Turk, founder of GoldMoney. "We created GoldMoney with the vision of making gold acces- sible for savings and payments, a vision that BitGold is rapidly expanding in a new era of cloud computing and mobile technol- ogy. Together we will continue to operate GoldMoney with the same level of security, integrity and premium customer service, but GoldMoney clients will now have access to expanded pay- ment options, a gold debit card, and the many applications and features being developed by this innovative team. Josh and Roy understand money and gold as well as anyone I've met. Their energy, vision, and dedication to expand this platform are truly remarkable. I am honored to be joining the combined board along with two of my fellow GoldMoney directors, Mahendra Naik and Hector Fleming." After combining BitGold and GoldMoney, Darrell MacMullin joined the team to become CEO of BitGold. Darrell has extensive experience in building marketplaces and payments platforms, having worked for eBay and PayPal over the past 12+ years man- aging those businesses' growth. His objective is to help build BitGold's vision to become a unique global savings and payments platform for today's commerce needs with new capabilities to buy, sell and receive gold as payments. In addition to Canada, BitGold serves clients in buying and selling gold in 15 currencies and over 200 markets around the world. The company completed a bought deal private place- ment with a syndicate of underwriters led by GMP Securities L.P. and includes Clarus Securities Inc., Canaccord Genuity and Dundee Securities. Under the offering, the company issued 5,750,000 shares at $3.65 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of $20,987,500. On July 29, 2015, BitGold changed its name to GoldMoney Inc. n