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Western Investment Company Files First Quarter Financial Results with an $804,000 Positive Swing in Net Income from Prior Year on Strengthening Margins at Foothills Creamery and Increased Profits at Fortress Insurance

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High River, Alberta–(Newsfile Corp. – May 26, 2023) – The Western Investment Company of Canada Limited (TSXV: WI) (“Western”) announces that it has filed its financial statements and MD&A for the first quarter ending March 31, 2023 on SEDAR.

In a message to shareholders, Western CEO Scott Tannas provided the following commentary:

“Our strong first quarter results featured much improved performance at Foothills Creamery combined with continuing sales and profit growth at Fortress Insurance, GlassMasters and Ocean Sales Group. This is the best first quarter result in Western’s history, providing positive momentum as we move into our traditionally stronger second and third quarters.

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Fortress Insurance Company saw its gross written premiums grow by 58% over 2022. The claims ratio stands at 44% on a trailing 12- month basis. Fortress’ investment portfolio of high-quality bonds and equities improved in value, with investment income returning to more normal levels compared to a tough first quarter for their investments last year. Overall net income at Fortress in Q1 was $274,000, compared to a loss of $257,000 in the same period last year.

GlassMasters was busier than usual in Q1, which is its seasonally lowest quarter. Sales were up 25% over Q1/22. Management expects a very busy spring and summer season, reporting that revenues continue to track strongly in April and May. Having had success with inventory management last year, the company is well stocked and ready to meet rising demand. GlassMasters is executing on expansion this year, with three new locations (Okotoks, AB; Kelowna, BC; and North Battleford, SK) coming online.

Ocean Sales completed Q1 with much stronger sales and profit results over the same time last year, with balanced sales activity across their exhibition, online, TV home shopping, and big box retail channels. The public exhibitions and consumer show channel continues to regain strength post -pandemic, and the team is looking forward to a busy schedule of summer and fall events.

– Sales and profitability at Foothills Creamery are on budget, providing evidence that all the effort to align pricing with the rising cost of goods has been achieved. This is welcome news, to say the least. With a busy ice cream season in Q2 and Q3, the order book is ahead of last year, and ice cream inventory is at healthy levels which should allow for Foothills to respond to peak demand during the 2023 season. The weather makes a big difference, so the folks at Foothills are hoping for a nice, sunny summer.

Golden Health Care is behind budget in Q1, but still profitable. Two of its three homes have seen improved occupancy rates in Q1, while the third continues to have spaces available for seniors needing long term care. As I mentioned in my year end report, we are working with our partners to engage in broader industry and government discussions on a potential new way forward for Saskatchewan and its seniors care programs. We will provide further reports on our progress in the months to come.

Outlook

As we enter the final days of May, our second quarter is more than half complete, and we continue to hear reports from our investee companies of stronger sales compared to last year. As mentioned in my year end report, we also have a number of strategic discussions underway and objectives we are working toward. We will provide additional news as to our progress on these fronts in our next report.”

About The Western Investment Company of Canada Limited

Western is a unique publicly traded, private equity company founded by a group of successful Western Canadian businesspeople, and dedicated to building and maintaining ownership in successful Western Canadian companies, and helping them to grow. Western’s shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol WI.

For more information on Western, please visit its website at www.winv.ca

CONTACT INFORMATION – The Western Investment Company of Canada Limited

Scott Tannas President and Chief Executive Officer (403) 652-2663 [email protected]

Advisory

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements, including without limitation, statements pertaining to future plans, acquisitions, financings and returns. Statements containing the words: ‘believes’, ‘intends’, ‘expects’, ‘plans’, ‘seeks’ and ‘anticipates’ and any other words of similar meaning are forward-looking. All statements included herein involve various risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and circumstances beyond Western’s control. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Western’s disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and Western does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/167726

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Mozrt’s Collaboration with BOK Financial: Revolutionizing Cross-Border Payments

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Mozrt, an award-winning payments technology platform, and BOKF, NA, one of the U.S.’s 25 largest banks, announce their plans to reshape cross-border payment services and elevate the capabilities of financial institutions.
At the heart of this collaboration lies Mozrt’s commitment to delivering advanced cross-border and FX payment capabilities to BOK Financial’s broad network of downstream or correspondent banks, magnifying efficiency and convenience for their clients. By combining the strengths of both entities, this collaboration empowers financial institutions of all sizes to seamlessly offer international payment capabilities to their customers.
The Mozrt MFX platform delivers real-time FX rates, allowing downstream correspondents to initiate and book cross-border payments. This all takes place within a highly secured platform, leveraging the latest in MFA and multi-level approval technology.
“The platform enables Mozrt and BOK Financial to introduce a suite of features designed to simplify processes, enhance security, and ultimately better serve downstream correspondents.
We’re excited to be providing a tech-forward solution that simplifies international payments, ensuring they are straightforward and hassle-free,” said Heath Hartley, BOK Financial. “The Mozrt platform offers robust beneficiary creation, validation, and management, facilitating accurate and efficient transactions.”
Furthermore, the collaboration facilitates a seamless transition for existing digital banking platforms, allowing single sign-on (SSO) or utilization of a custom, FI-branded portal. Mozrt’s modular design enables easy integration into various points across the front, middle, and back offices.
By delivering a user-centric online FX origination experience, this Mozrt – BOK Financial relationship equips financial institutions to meet the dynamic demands of the digital era.
Jeff Althaus, Founder & CEO of Mozrt, expressed his enthusiasm about the companies’ plans: “We are thrilled about the potential impact of Mozrt’s collaboration with BOK Financial in redefining cross-border payment services. Working alongside an innovative institution like BOK Financial enables us to provide a holistic solution that simplifies international transactions and accelerates our clients’ digital transformation.”

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MapMetrics expands to peaq from Solana following addition of Solana compatibility to peaq’s Multi-Chain Machine IDs

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peaq, the blockchain for real-world applications, announces the expansion of its ecosystem and product offering. MapMetrics, a Web3 drive-to-earn navigation app, will leverage peaq as part of its decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) powering a Google Maps-style service. The development comes as peaq adds Solana compatibility to its Multi-Chain Machine IDs.

A Solana-originating project, MapMetrics will leverage the now Solana-compatible peaq IDs to build functions of the MapMetrics DePIN on peaq. These will include assigning peaq IDs to the navigator devices on its DePIN, using these IDs to authenticate the data collected by these devices, and a community voting mechanism.

Free navigation apps have become trusty companions for countless people around the world, with Google Maps alone boasting over a billion users. But despite a lack of an upfront cost, they come with a price of their own. When something is free, you are the product; when navigation is free, your personal data is being monetized. From leveraging the user’s position data for valuable insights on specific locations to serving them targeted location-based ads, the companies behind such apps profit from our sensitive data, sometimes without giving much thought to its privacy and protection. And in the case of massive companies like Google, they combine this data with the data sourced from all other Google-related data points to create digital models of ourselves, able to predict our behavior than ourselves.

MapMetrics is changing the equation by putting navigation on Web3 rails. It uses location trackers that enable users to share their anonymized data with the network, earning cryptocurrency and NFTs as rewards. While featuring its own ad engine, it makes sure that no private user data is exposed to the advertisers and shares the ad revenue with the community. It boasts 3,500 devices in the network and 5,000 users across 73 countries.

As part of its integration with peaq, MapMetrics will use peaq’s Multi-Chain IDs to enable devices to connect with the peaq network. It will build and deploy some of the core functions powering its navigation DePIN on peaq, using peaq IDs to authenticate and sign the anonymized data that the devices collect. It will also tap peaq to build a community voting pallet — a building block that other projects will be able to use as well — which will enable the community to contribute to its Google Maps-style navigation service by adding the locations of speed cameras and other objects and validating it with votes.

This comes as peaq expands the compatibility of its peaq IDs to include Solana. Enabling this is an address map running as part of the peaq storage pallet, pallets being modules for building blockchains in the framework that peaq runs on. This map works like an address book, linking addresses of different standards used on various networks and thus enabling cross-chain communication and information exchanges.

For example, with this integration, a solar panel with an ID on Solana will be able to connect to an energy marketplace on peaq. The previous updates made peaq IDs compatible with Binance’s BNB Chain, Ethereum Virtual Machine, and Cosmos. peaq’s steps toward its Multi-Chain vision have already eased the transition for projects coming from Algorand and Polygon, and will now unlock new opportunities for MapMetrics and other projects in the Solana ecosystem.

The peaq ID compatibility expansion enables teams originating on Solana to expand and leverage peaq’s DePIN functions without friction or fragmentation. With peaq Multi-Chain IDs, Solana-originated projects can easily tap peaq for some of their crucial functions.

“With its DePIN-focused functions and economics, peaq is the perfect home for DePINs,” says Brent van der Heiden, CEO of MapMetrics. “We are excited to be joining this bustling ecosystem, and the newfound compatibility between peaq IDs and Solana addresses is making this process significantly more convenient.”

“We believe in an open, Multi-Chain Web3 with seamless communication and value exchange between a plethora of protocols,” says Till Wendler, co-founder of peaq. “By making peaq IDs compatible with Solana, we take another step toward bringing this vision to life — and it’s invigorating to see excellent projects such as MapMetrics use this technology to solve real business problems with the DePIN model.”

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Spool hones in on bringing institutions into DeFi by launching its expansive V2 upgrade

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Spool DAO, or Spool, the platform allowing institutions and users to build customizable risk-managed DeFi products, launches its V2 upgrade. Spool’s new platform expands its original DeFi infrastructure and tools, with heightened decentralized access and new capabilities. Institutions of all sizes can now leverage its slate of new features and interface updates to build, manage, and explore DeFi products with unparalleled flexibility, risk reduction, and security.

Despite crypto’s whirlwind year, DeFi’s blue-chip protocols managed to largely withstand the industry-wide chaos. But that doesn’t mean the DeFi landscape hasn’t changed at all. Looming regulatory steps, such as the new bipartisan bill entering the U.S. Senate, aim to monitor DeFi apps similarly to banks, setting the stage to accommodate increasing interest from legacy financial institutions. Banks and institutions clearly see potential in crypto and DeFi’s financial possibilities, but they lack the proper tools to enter it easily, compliantly, and on their terms.

To meet this institutional need, Spool now provides a completely rebuilt platform for risk-managed and automated DeFi yield. Created from the ground up to be faster, more efficient, more composable, and easier to use than its predecessor, V2 represents a leap for Spool and institutions expanding their DeFi presence. The upgrade expands upon Spool’s core offering and introduces several key features to maximize the effectiveness of institutional DeFi investment. These features and enhancements include:

    • Multi-Asset Smart Vaults: Institutions creating Smart Vaults can now build them to contain a range of yield strategies using multiple assets. Multi-asset Smart Vaults enhance functionality in addition to Spool’s classic auto-swapping and auto-rebalancing capabilities. Investors can simply create or pick an existing Smart Vault that matches their investment preferences, and send the assets they have available. The assets are then automatically swapped and implemented in audited and battle-tested smart contracts to attain the best yields possible while allowing funds to be withdrawn at any time.
    • Smart Vault Guards: Institutions building Smart Vaults can now dictate which users can deposit or withdraw from the Vault based on specific criteria, mirroring traditional investment funds. This helps institutions tailor DeFi offerings not only to regulatory compliance but to their specific client needs as well. Institutions can create KYC and AML-compliant Smart Vaults, for example, and only allow access to vetted investors through whitelisted wallets. Other parameters include NFT or Token Gating (where a user must hold a specific NFT or token amount to access the vault), and Time Locks.
    • Actions: Spool builders can now implement customizable actions tied to user activities such as entering or exiting a Smart Vault that is configured during its creation. Actions help support institutions by creating a framework that feels familiar to traditional finance and includes features such as deposit or withdrawal fees, deposit insurance fees, and automated asset swaps that help streamline the once-manual process for yield farming.
    • Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs) Support: LSDs are tokens issued in return for staking cryptocurrency through a staking provider. This comes in handy for networks such as Ethereum, where validators must hold a minimum of 32 ETH to access staking and validator privileges. LSDs also allow users to withdraw staked ETH, which validators cannot do. As strategies using LSDs become more popular and prevalent, adding support in V2 enables greater convenience.
    • Advanced Automation: One of DeFi’s major obstacles lies in manual asset management within yield farms. V2 improves upon Spool’s original automation features while maintaining decentralization and self-custody. Once assets are within a Smart Vault portfolio, V2 automatically rebalances them between various strategies configured in the Vault. Spool also now offers automated collateral conversion, meaning clients investing in a Smart Vault can utilize any underlying asset they have available. Spool automatically converts the asset before investing, granting increased ease and choice.
    • Deposit NFTs (dNFTs): D-NFTs provide users with an immutable NFT receipt of their Smart Vault deposits, enabling the withdrawal of funds. ERC-20 Smart Vault Tokens (SVTs) are created by burning D-NFTs and act as yield-bearing stablecoins, which can be easily transferred or traded on a secondary market, creating a new liquid financial instrument.

Check out Spool’s video here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/150B6sSdX9gMAjdig-5675nLfftciWidJ/view

More detailed video with features overview can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uIr_AJ_iHKErkHR5lFaUWk39A4-NUtEo/view?usp=drive_link

Among these new features, Spool V2’s completely redesigned interface allows institutions and asset managers to have a birds-eye view of their Smart Vault portfolio. The platform champions accessibility while providing the comprehensive tools and oversight that institutions require. This includes tools for easily white-labeling Smart Vaults for client access with their own branding and unique insights into Smart Vault performance based on customizable KPIs.

By enabling the codeless creation of financial services and products backed by audited financial primitives, institutions that don’t have DeFi-specific teams are now able to easily access DeFi. The upgrade’s capabilities set the stage for large-scale institutional partnerships in the pipeline for Spool, following a steady stream of integrations and collaborations leading up to its launch.

“We are incredibly proud to launch Spool V2 after countless months of our team developing, testing, and listening to the feedback and needs of our institutional partners,” says Philipp Zimmerer, Lead of Token Strategy of Spool. “This lands at a pivotal moment in crypto in a year that has been all about responsibly rebuilding the industry and forging a new path for DeFi. Improving access, flexibility, and security will not only garner further institutional support but set a new standard for what DeFi can make possible for any investor.”

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