Cornerstone FS PLC (AIM:CSFS) said it has sold a subsidiary, Capital Currencies Ltd, which has not been trading since last November, for £150,000 cash.
The foreign exchange and payments solutions company struck the deal to buy the profitable forex broker in January 2022 to accelerate growth and strengthen its proportion of direct sales to larger UK SMEs.
With all of Capital Currencies' customers subsequently transferred to the Cornerstone technology platform and its staff brought onboard after the acquisition, the business stopped trading a few months later.
Chief executive James Hickman said: "This is a great outcome for Cornerstone, generating value from the sale of a licence, that is surplus to our requirements, to a non-competing business.
“As with the sale of our Avila House subsidiary at the start of the year, which was acquired for its small e-money licence, this transaction also demonstrates the importance of payments and e-money registrations and the value that purchasers place on them.”
The AIM-listed group said its main operating subsidiary, Cornerstone Payment Solutions, has more extensive regulatory permissions than the sold business as it is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an authorised electronic money institution.
Once the deal is approved by the FCA and completed, the proceeds are intended to be used to top up the group’s coffers, which showed a balance of £0.8 million in the interim results last week.