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Quinsam Reports Q2/2020 Results

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Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – August 20, 2020) – Quinsam Capital Corporation (CSE: QCA) (“Quinsam” or the “Company”) wishes to announce its Q2/2020 results, with net income of $2.4 million ($0.02 per share basic, $0.02 fully diluted) versus a net loss of $2.7 million ($0.02 per share basic, $0.02 fully diluted) in Q2/2019. Investors can access the Company’s full financial statements on sedar.com.

“At June 30, 2020, we had net assets of approximately $0.29 per share outstanding,” said Roger Dent, CEO of Quinsam. “After several quarters of difficult market conditions, we are pleased to report a return to profitable operations.”

The COVID-19 situation led to a very difficult Q1, which set the stage for a strong rebound in our publicly-traded investments in Q2. We saw some strong performances by CityView Green, IM Cannabis, Sixth Wave and Pharmadrug, among others. We took advantage of the strength to exit Sixth Wave, IM Cannabis, Pharmadrug and a number of small holdings.

Quinsam is pleased with the progress made by two of its largest investments, City View Green and Budd Hutt. CityView Green has secured a new management team and we understand it is now making good progress on its edibles business plan. Budd Hutt has received approval to commence operations from the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission and store openings are expected to begin in the coming weeks.

Several of Quinsam’s investee companies have announced liquidity plans including Eden Empire, Molecule and Embark, all of which have announced RTO transactions and are expected to trade in 2020. We believe that additional liquidity transactions are likely to be announced later in 2020. In Quinsam’s non-cannabis portfolio, we have seen a strong performance by Newlox Gold, which moved from $0.04 at the end of Q1 and $0.055 at the end of Q2 to a recent trading level of $0.17. Quinsam’s private e-sports betting investment, PMML, completed a $3 million investment round at a premium of approximately 50% to our previous carrying value, which will be reflected in our Q3 results. PMML currently plans a public listing in early 2021.

In recent months we have made a number of smaller follow-on investments in some of our existing issuers including Pharmadrug debentures, Nutritional High mortgage debentures and additional loans to Budd Hutt. Otherwise we have applied sale proceeds to our issuer bid, dividends, expenses including taxes and increasing our net cash balance.

In recent months, Quinsam has taken a number of steps to reduce operating expenses, including termination of its market maker, the reduction of the board from 7 to 4 members and the elimination of the president position. “Quinsam has always maintained a low cost base. We were early adopters of the “virtual office” model and do not employ any conventional support staff. Following our cost reductions, our annual basic cash costs should now be under 2% of net assets, which we believe is very reasonable for a publicly-traded specialty investment vehicle,” said Roger Dent.

Director Resignation

Adam Szweras has resigned as a director of the Company effective August 20, 2020. “Adam has provided the Company with excellent advice over his tenure as a director,” said Roger Dent. “We look forward to continuing to work with Adam as a trusted source of expertise and business opportunities in the future.”

Issuer Bid Update

Quinsam announced a normal course issuer bid to purchase up to 5,733,635 of its common shares (the “Bid”) in August 2019.

In the quarter ending June 30, 2020, Quinsam repurchased and cancelled 2,233,635 shares pursuant to the Bid, bringing total repurchases pursuant to the Bid since August 28, 2019 to 5,733,635 shares. The shares were purchased at a large discount to NAV and the repurchases had a positive impact on NAV per share for remaining shareholders.

Last month, Quinsam announced an issuer bid to purchase up to 5,446,952 of its common shares (the “New Bid”). The Company commenced the New Bid because it believes that the current market price of its common shares may not fully reflect the underlying value of the Company’s business and future prospects. The Company believes that the repurchase of its common shares for cancellation is in the best interests of its shareholders because the New Bid will increase the respective proportionate shareholdings and equity interests of all remaining shareholders. The Company will commence the New Bid on August 28, 2020. The New Bid will terminate on August 27, 2021, or on an earlier date in the event that the number of common shares sought in the Bid has been repurchased. The Company reserves the right to terminate the Bid earlier if it feels that it is appropriate to do so. All common shares will be purchased on the open market through the facilities of the Canadian Securities Exchange (“CSE”), and payment for the common shares will be made in accordance with CSE policies. The price paid for the common shares will be the prevailing market price at the time of purchase. Purchases may be suspended at any time, and no purchases will be made other than by means of open market transactions during the term of the New Bid. The Company has engaged M Partners to act as the broker through which the New Bid will be conducted.

About Quinsam Capital Corporation

Quinsam is a merchant bank based in Canada with a focus on “small cap” investments. Our merchant banking business may encompass a range of activities including acquisitions, advisory services, lending activities and portfolio investments. Quinsam invests its capital for its own account in assets, companies or projects which we believe are undervalued and where we see a viable plan for unlocking such value. We do not invest on behalf of any third party and we do not offer investment advice.

Generally, Quinsam does not believe that individual investments are material reportable events. Quinsam may choose to announce certain investments once the company is certain that it has finished buying its position because the Company feels that this information helps Quinsam’s investors understand its investment decision making process. Generally, Quinsam does not announce the sale of investments.

For further information please contact:

Roger Dent, CEO
(647) 993-5475
[email protected]

This press release may contain forward-looking statements relating to anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations that are not historical facts but instead represent our beliefs regarding future events, which are inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements can often, but not always, be identified by forward-looking words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “expect”, “goal”, “plan”, “intend”, “estimate”, “may”, “project”, “predict”, “potential”, “target”, and “will” or similar words suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance.

By their nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions which include, among other things, that (i) Quinsam will have sufficient capital under management to effect its business strategies, (ii) the business strategies will produce the results intended by Quinsam, and (iii) the markets will react and perform in a manner consistent with the business strategies.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking information expressed in this press release include, but are not limited to: cannabis companies Quinsam has invested in obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals including acquiring and renewing U.S. state, local or other licenses, and the uncertainty of existing protection from U.S. federal or other prosecution; regulatory or political change such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. state-law legalization; market and general economic conditions of the cannabis sector or otherwise, interest rates, regulatory and statutory developments, the nature of the Company’s investments, the available opportunities and competition for investments, the concentration of the Company’s investments in certain industries and sectors, reliance on key personnel, risks affecting the Company’s investments, management of the growth of the Company, and exchange rate fluctuations. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of risks and factors is not exhaustive. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause events or results to differ from those intended, anticipated or estimated.

The forward-looking information contained herein is provided as at the date of this press release, based upon the opinions and estimates of management and information available to management as at the date of this press release. The Company does not undertake and specifically disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information contained in this press release.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION BY ANY UNITED STATES NEWS DISTRIBUTION SERVICE

Fintech

Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space

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The BIS, along with seven leading central banks and a cohort of private financial firms, has embarked on an ambitious venture known as Project Agorá.

Named after the Greek word for “marketplace,” this initiative stands at the forefront of exploring the potential of tokenisation to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the monetary system worldwide.

Central to this pioneering project are the Bank of France (on behalf of the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These institutions have joined forces under the banner of Project Agorá, in partnership with an extensive assembly of private financial entities convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

At the heart of Project Agorá is the pursuit of integrating tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money within a unified, public-private programmable financial platform. By harnessing the advanced capabilities of smart contracts and programmability, the project aspires to unlock new transactional possibilities that were previously infeasible or impractical, thereby fostering novel opportunities that could benefit businesses and consumers alike.

The collaborative effort seeks to address and surmount a variety of structural inefficiencies that currently plague cross-border payments. These challenges include disparate legal, regulatory, and technical standards; varying operating hours and time zones; and the heightened complexity associated with conducting financial integrity checks (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification procedures), which are often redundantly executed across multiple stages of a single transaction due to the involvement of several intermediaries.

As a beacon of experimental and exploratory projects, the BIS Innovation Hub is committed to delivering public goods to the global central banking community through initiatives like Project Agorá. In line with this mission, the BIS will soon issue a call for expressions of interest from private financial institutions eager to contribute to this ground-breaking project. The IIF will facilitate the involvement of private sector participants, extending an invitation to regulated financial institutions representing each of the seven aforementioned currencies to partake in this transformative endeavour.

Source: fintech.globa

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TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud

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TD Bank has inked a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as it looks to streamline the development and deployment of new products and services.

The deal will see the Canadian banking group integrate the vendor’s cloud services into a wider portion of its technology solutions portfolio, a move which TD expects will enable it “to respond quickly to changing customer expectations by rolling out new features, updates, or entirely new financial products at an accelerated pace”.

This marks an expansion of the already established relationship between TD Bank and Google Cloud after the group previously adopted the vendor’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for TD Securities Automated Trading (TDSAT), the Chicago-based subsidiary of its investment banking unit, TD Securities.

TDSAT uses GKE for process automation and quantitative modelling across fixed income markets, resulting in the development of a “data-driven research platform” capable of processing large research workloads in trading.

Dan Bosman, SVP and CIO of TD Securities, claims the infrastructure has so far supported TDSAT with “compute-intensive quantitative analysis” while expanding the subsidiary’s “trading volumes and portfolio size”.

TD’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see the group attempt to replicate the same level of success across its entire portfolio.

Source: fintechfutures.com

The post TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

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MAS launches transformative platform to combat money laundering

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The MAS has unveiled Cosmic, an acronym for Collaborative Sharing of Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing Information and Cases, a new money laundering platform.

According to Business Times, launched on April 1, Cosmic stands out as the first centralised digital platform dedicated to combating money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing on a worldwide scale. This move follows the enactment of the Financial Services and Markets (Amendment) Act 2023, which, along with its subsidiary legislation, commenced on the same day to provide a solid legal foundation and safeguards for information sharing among financial institutions (FIs).

Cosmic enables participating FIs to exchange customer information when certain “red flags” indicate potential suspicious activities. The platform’s introduction is a testament to MAS’s commitment to ensuring the integrity of the financial sector, mandating participants to establish stringent policies and operational safeguards to maintain the confidentiality of the shared information. This strategic approach allows for the efficient exchange of intelligence on potential criminal activities while protecting legitimate customers.

Significantly, Cosmic was co-developed by MAS and six leading commercial banks in Singapore—OCBC, UOB, DBS, Citibank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered—which will serve as participant FIs during its initial phase. The initiative emphasizes voluntary information sharing focused on addressing key financial crime risks within the commercial banking sector, such as the misuse of legal persons, trade finance, and proliferation financing.

Loo Siew Yee, assistant managing director for policy, payments, and financial crime at MAS, highlighted that Cosmic enhances the existing collaboration between the industry and law enforcement authorities, fortifying Singapore’s reputation as a well-regulated and trusted financial hub. Similarly, Pua Xiao Wei of Citi Singapore and Loretta Yuen of OCBC have expressed their institutions’ support for Cosmic, noting its potential to ramp up anti-money laundering efforts and its significance as a development in the banking sector’s ability to combat financial crimes efficiently. DBS’ Lam Chee Kin also praised Cosmic as a “game changer,” emphasizing the careful balance between combating financial crime and ensuring legitimate customers’ access to financial services.

Source: fintech.global

The post MAS launches transformative platform to combat money laundering appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.

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