Coinbase makes New York debut in watershed moment for crypto

Liam Roche
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Coinbase makes New York debut in watershed moment for crypto

Coinbase trades 50% over its reference price

Coinbase shares (NASDAQ:COIN) traded at $381 on its New York debut, over 50% above its $250 reference price, on a day hailed as a watershed moment for cryptocurrencies on the world financial markets.

The price puts the eminent digital currency exchange’s value at just under $100bn on its first day of trading.

In the lead up to Coinbase’s listing on Wednesday, bitcoin set a new all-time high, surging above $63,000, before retreating slightly.

The company’s high valuation has added another name to the list of the world’s billionaires with Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO and co-founder, who has a 20% stake in the company bringing his net worth to $20bn.

Armstrong has said in previous interviews that his overriding goal is to usurp the current financial system with a more efficient model.

“I don’t think crypto is here to solve every problem in the world. But it’s here to solve one very important meta-challenge, which is economic freedom,” he told the Wall Street Journal.

Coinbase was founded in 2012 and become one of the world’s leading digital currency exchanges. The exchange has around 56m users in more than 100 countries. It holds assets valued at $223bn, amounting to over 11% over the total market for crypto-assets.

“What we hope is it just brings a lot more transparency to this industry, and a lot more focus,” said Alesia Haas, chief financial officer of Coinbase. “We’ve seen that with the attention that Coinbase has received during the past few months.”

Coinbase’s listing is specifically not an IPO which would involve the issuance of further shares. It is a direct listing which means existing equity will be sold without further dilution. Coinbase has been operating for close to a decade, and has received vast sums from venture capitalists, negating the necessity for an IPO.


Directors Dealing: Proteome Sciences

UK Investor Magazine
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Directors Dealing: Proteome Sciences

Proteome Sciences  (LON: Prem)  4.72p  Mkt Cap £14m
The Company has received notification from Richard Dennis, Chief Commercial Officer, that on 12 April and 13 April 2021 he purchased, in aggregate, 625,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company at an average price of 5.22p per share. Richard Dennis now holds 625,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company, which represents approximately 0.21% of the issued share capital of the Company.
Rchard Dennis joined the group in April 2017. He has a commercial background spanning over 30 years in the global life sciences research sector. ...

Is bitcoin driving the Tesla share price?

Liam Roche
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0
Is bitcoin driving the Tesla share price?

Tesla Share Price

Tesla shares rallied 8.6% on Tuesday, closing at $762.32, its highest point since February 2019. Yesterday’s advance was the largest rise in a single day since March 9, when Tesla jumped by nearly 20%. Since the turn of the year the company’s value is up by 8.03%.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin set a new all-time high on Tuesday, surging above $63,000. The pre-eminent cryptocurrency has been pushing up in recent weeks, and is up by over 7% in the last seven days. This is welcomed news for Tesla after the company confirmed just over two months ago that it purchased $1.5bn worth of bitcoin. Tesla has now doubled its crypto holdings by an amount that far exceeds its maiden 2020 profit of $721m from the sale of its electric vehicles.

The electric vehicle maker has previously outlined how its holding will impact the company’s balance sheet.

“We will perform an analysis each quarter to identify impairment. If the carrying value of the digital asset exceeds the fair value based on the lowest price quoted in the active exchanges during the period, we will recognise an impairment loss equal to the difference in the consolidated statement of operations,” the company said.

“The cost basis of the digital assets will not be adjusted upward for any subsequent increases in their quoted prices on the active exchanges. Gains (if any) will not be recorded until realised upon sale.”

Tesla will not recognise a gain on the value of its holdings unless some are sold. On the other hand, it will acknowledge a loss if bitcoin’s value falls below the price it was purchased for even if the coins are not sold.

While it will not consider its gains on bitcoins as profit, its stock is closely tied to the cryptocurrency, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. “Musk is now tied to the bitcoin story in the eyes of the Street,” Ives told CNBC. “On the downside it’s playing with firecrackers and risks and volatility are added to the Tesla story,” Ives added.

Managing change and consolidating opportunities

Andrew Hore
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Managing change and consolidating opportunities

When managements recognise that they need to change the business model of their company this cannot always be done in a short period of time. Sometimes there can be a couple of years of stagnation or lower profits.
Covid-19 has masked and delayed some of the improvement in this managed technology services business, but the work done behind the scenes provides a good base from which to return to the previous strategy of participating in the consolidation in the sector.
New borrowing facilities mean that there is the fire power to increase the scale of the business. 
AdEPT Technology (LON: ...

EasyJet all set to ‘ramp up’ flights for summer

Liam Roche
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0
EasyJet all set to ‘ramp up’ flights for summer

EasyJet Q2 cash better than guidance

EasyJet (LON:EZJ) confirmed hefty losses as a result of the pandemic but stated its intention to “ramp up our operations to match the level of demand we see in the market”.

The airline said that it is anticipating a loss before tax of £690-730m for the first half of the year, up to 31 March, slightly above its initial expectations.

The FTSE 250 company also stated that its capacity forecasting meant it was able to rein in its costs while a focus on cash generative flying over the winter months resulted in second-quarter cash being “better than guidance”.

While the company gave an optimistic outlook and welcomed news that international travel was set to reopen, its chief executive, Johan Lundgren, warned against the costly nature of testing programmes.

The earliest date for international travel from England remains as the 17 May, as Grant Shapps, the UK Transport Secretary, telling the BBC: “This is the first time I’m able to come on and say I’m not advising against booking foreign holidays.”

Lundgren added further comments along with the company’s trading update:

“easyJet has maintained a disciplined approach to flying during the first half of our financial year, resulting in a first half loss and cash burn better than expectations. We continue to have access to significant levels of liquidity alongside easyJet’s major cost-out programme which continues to deliver ongoing cost and efficiency benefits. All of this positions us well to lead the recovery.”

“We welcome the confirmation by the UK Government that international travel is on track to reopen as planned in mid-May. easyJet was founded to make travel accessible for all and so we continue to engage with Government to ensure that the cost of the required testing is driven down so that it doesn’t risk turning back the clock and make travel too costly for some.”

“We continue to closely monitor the situation across Europe and with vaccination programmes accelerating, most countries are planning to resume flying at scale in May. We have the operational flexibility to rapidly increase flying and add destinations to match demand. easyJet is ready to resume flying, prepared for the ramp up and looking forward to being able to reunite people with their families or take them on leisure and business flights once again. As a result, we remain well-positioned for the recovery this summer and beyond.”

IPOs, crypto mania, and signs of a market top?

UK Investor Magazine
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IPOs, crypto mania, and signs of a market top?

Alan Green joins the Podcast as we await trading in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency dealing platform which could be valued at $100bn.

The Coinbase IPO marks the move of cryptocurrencies to the mainstream and we question what it could mean for assets such as Bitcoin if investors view Coinbase’s listing as a ‘buy the rumour, sell the fact’ moment.

Major investment banks and institutional investors have changed their stance on Crypto with this IPO, many who warned against investing in the assets, or even called them a Ponzi scheme, are now showing interest and working them into their business models.

After the busiest quarter for IPOs on the London Stock Exchange since 2007, we touch on Mast Energy Developments who began trading today, changing hands at 15p having set an IPO price of IPO.

The three UK equities we explore in this episode are ECR Minerals (LON:ECR), Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) and Blencowe Resources (LON:BRES)

Foxtons revenue on the up as London property market bounces back

Liam Roche
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Foxtons revenue on the up as London property market bounces back

Foxtons benefit from takeover Douglas and Gordon

Foxtons (LON:FOXT) released a trading update on Wednesday which said the estate agency has begun 2021 with solid revenue growth.

For Q1, which ended on March 31, Foxtons reported a 24% increase in its revenue to £28.5m as volumes outweighed the pressure caused by rising rent prices in London, where the company conducts a large part of its business.

As lockdown restrictions were eased the estate agency saw the sales arm of its business rise by 60%, while its mortgage broking revenue Gaines 20% to £2.3m.

The update reserved a special mention for Foxton’s takeover of West London agent Douglas and Gordon which contributed approximately £1m in extra revenue.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Nic Budden, Group Chief Executive Officer said:

“I am delighted with the start we have made to the year, which is the best first quarter’s trading in some time. The acquisition of Douglas & Gordon, the largest acquisition in our history, represents an acceleration of the Group’s strategy and is a business with significant potential,” said Budden.

“Our recent investment in Boomin demonstrates our commitment to remain at the forefront of technology. As we look forward, the strong trading momentum is expected to continue through the second quarter and together with tight cost control gives us confidence that operating profit for the first half will be significantly higher than last year.”

Ironridge Resources: One Company with Two Happy Endings

UK Investor Magazine
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0
Ironridge Resources: One Company with Two Happy Endings

Ironridge Resources (LON: IRR) 22p Mkt Cap £100m
Gold edged Lithium
Yesterday’s drill results reported the highest ever grade of lithium from its Ghana prospect and is the third RNS announcement so far in April. IRR is a dual commodity exploration company and is also actively drilling for gold in the Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa. 
This is doubling the rate of news flow as IRR approaches its definitive development stage from exploration into bridge to production and the corporate team has been strengthened. The high-grade lithium reported is additional to the&...

Podcast surge during lockdown sees Audioboom confirm maiden profit

Liam Roche
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0
Podcast surge during lockdown sees Audioboom confirm maiden profit

Audioboom share price up 4% in morning session

Audioboom (LON:BOOM), the podcast company based Jersey, recorded its first ever profit during Q1 as demand has continued to grow during the pandemic.

The AIM-listed company has released its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $30,000 during the first quarter of the year, a swing from a substantial $500,000 loss the year before.

Revenue over the period rose by nearly 50% to $9.5m.

The average number of downloads across the world grew by 37% from the year before to 87.1m, getting as high as 91.6m in March.

As well as being a platform for podcasts, Audioboom expanded its range of content by launching Relax! hosted by Colleen Ballinger and Erik Stocklin. The show made it to number one on the Apple US podcast chart.

Audioboom is expecting its revenue for the year to exceed its market expectations, as it has now signed 90% of its forecast advertising bookings.

Shares in the company are up by over 4% on early morning trading.

Stuart Last, CEO of Audioboom, commented: “Q1 2021 was a breakthrough period for Audioboom, reaching adjusted EBITDA profitability for the first time and demonstrating the strength of our business model. I am delighted with our revenue performance and continued cost control. It is important to note that the 49% year-on-year revenue growth we have delivered is benchmarked against the one quarter in 2020 that was not significantly impacted by Covid-19.”

“Our record performance is driven by our content focused expansion strategy. New content partnerships and successful Audioboom Originals Network launches delivered strong growth in our Global Downloads key performance indicator, with more than 90 million downloads in March. As a result, Audioboom became the fourth largest podcast publisher by number of average weekly users in the US on the Triton Digital ranker.”

FTSE 100 in positive territory following record highs in America

Liam Roche
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0
FTSE 100 in positive territory following record highs in America

The FTSE 100 was up marginally by 0.24% in the morning session on Tuesday at around 6,906. “The index’s hopes of rebuilding momentum were in part harmed by Tesco, which fell more than 3% following its full year update,” according to Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex.

“The FTSE 100 was hampered also by a rebounding pound. Sterling added 0.3% against the dollar and 0.2% against the euro, as it continues to try and claw back its recent losses,” Campbell said.

Things were no more exciting in the Eurozone than they were in the UK. The DAX dropped 0.1% and the IBEX 0.2%, but with the CAC climbing 0.2% to a fresh all-time high of 6,200.

Closing lower following a higher than forecast set of inflation readings and news that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout is to be paused, the Dow Jones still finds itself only 120 points off its all-time peak.

FTSE 100 Top Movers

The top risers early on Tuesday are miners Antofagasta (2.81%) and Glencore (2.6%), as well as Anglo American (2.09%).

While at the other end, Tesco (-2.38%), following its results, BT Group (-1.82%) and Ferguson (-1.43%) are the day’s biggest fallers so far.

Tesco

Tesco felt the impact of the pandemic as 20% was wiped off the supermarket’s full-year profits even though it achieved “exceptionally strong” sales growth. The FTSE 100 company confirmed it made a profit before tax of £825m for the year to 27 February, 19.7% low than the year before, despite its sales in the UK growing by 7.7% to £39.4bn.

“In many ways it was a banner 12-months for Britain’s biggest supermarket, its pandemic offerings wooing customers away from its rivals and leading group sales 8.8% higher to £53.4 billion. Yet covid-related costs were an unavoidable factor, causing profits to plummet 20% to £825 million, turning off investors in the process,” said Campbell.

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