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(Alliance News) - Blue Star Capital PLC on Tuesday posted a broadly flat loss for the first half of its financial year following additional costs from its aborted SatoshiPay Ltd acquisition.
New technologies investor Blue Star's shares were down 7.7% at 0.12 pence at midday Tuesday.
The company's pretax loss for the six months ended March 31 was GBP494,543, more or less unchanged from its GBP501,160 loss the year before.
The loss arising from Blue Star's investments fell considerably to GBP288,496 from GBP399,384. However, this was largely offset as the company incurred GBP36,757 of other fair value losses compared to no such losses the year before and as administrative expenses climbed to GBP169,320 from GBP101,776.
"Ongoing running costs of the business have been maintained at a similar level to last year although some additional costs relating to the aborted acquisition of SatoshiPay were incurred in the period," said Non-Executive Chair William Henbrey.
SatoshiPay is a financial technology firm. As at March 31, Blue Star's stake in the firm was 28%. Blue Star dropped its proposed acquisition in January, citing tough market conditions as the reason why it failed to raise enough funds to complete the deal.
"Although the planned acquisition of SatoshiPay was ultimately unsuccessful, a number of positive developments came out of the process. Since the beginning of the year, market conditions and sentiment have certainly improved towards blockchain and during the period SatoshiPay attracted strong support from a number of new strategic investors. The board therefore remains confident that SatoshiPay offers significant upside potential to Blue Star and its shareholders," said Henbrey.
"Overall, the board is confident that the current portfolio has the potential for a significant improvement in net asset value and at the same time the board continues to monitor corporate opportunities to enhance shareholder value," the chair added.
As at March 31, Blue Star's cash position was GBP63,605, up from GBP31,416 on September 30.
