A change of name and business focus does not normally occur just three months after a company lists.
But Blockchain Worldwide PLC (LON:BLOC) has done just that and chief executive Rodger Sargent says the switch is all about the potential for the electronic ledger technology, blockchain.
In short, blockchain is the most exciting opportunity that has arisen since the internet, he told Proactive Investors.
Shell specialist
Sargent is someone who in old money would have been called a shellmeister.
His modus operandi, as he calls it, is to find technology business with good management teams, raise money and reverse them into companies that have little more than a listing.
Broadband supplier Satellite Services WorldWide Group PLC (LON:SSAT) , podcast specialist Audioboom Group PLC (LON:BOOM) and streaming group Meloday VR owner EVR Holdings PLC (LON:EVRH) are all companies floated in this way by Sargent and his team.
Stapleton Capital was latest cab off the rank when it joined the standard list of the main market last October.
Huge deal flow
Watch: Blockchain Worldwide looking to build 'proper companies on proper blockchain tech'
The original aim was to engineer a reverse takeover of a telecoms-based business, but Sargent says the change of focus and name to Blockchain Worldwide was almost Hobson’s Choice.
“There was such a huge deal flow in blockchain technology, it was too good to turn down,” he says.
Sargent believes there are very few industries or applications that blockchain does not have the capability to transform.
“One you put everything on the block you can disintermediate everyone who takes money out of the system.”
In medicine for example, patient booking, medical records, drug dispensing and so on, all can be put on the blockchain.
Estate agents, too, face major disruption as all house and survey information will be freely available on the block.
Blockchain-based stock exchanges
Sargent, though, seems especially keen to see how blockchain changes the way shares and other assets are traded.
Listing any company costs a fortune, he says, but the blockchain has the potential to eliminate that.
A number of deals are being considered, Sargent says, though nothing is imminent.
Something by the end of this calendar year is as much as he will give away, though the size of any potential deal is now much larger than the £3-4mln mentioned in last year’s prospectus.
Sargent seems happy to bide his time. The company raised £1.5mln when it floated last September and with minimal overheads there is no rush, he says.
“The end game is that there will be dozens of companies looking to use blockchain.
“Some will have the wrong management, some the wrong tech, some not enough money and some too much funding.
Biding its time
“We can sit there and hopefully pick the rights ones and consolidate the corpses.”
This will be across more than one industry and may involve more than deal, but it all essentially comes back to eliminating the middleman.
Through consolidation and roll-ups, Sargent sees scope to create the definitive blockchain stock exchange, a gaming company, a medical company or even a car dealer.
“Any information that can coded and digitised can be put on a block.”
The distributed ledger can disintermediate everyone,” he repeats.
“The internet created some of the greatest companies we’ve seen and blockchain is another similar opportunity.”
At 8p, Blockchain Worldwide is valued at £3.5mln.