By Loni Prinsloo, Bloomberg.
South Africa’s Altvest Capital plans to raise $210 million to buy Bitcoin and build a crypto treasury reserve, seeking to benefit from a near doubling of the digital asset in the past year.
The company will also change its name to Africa Bitcoin Corp, its founder and Chief Executive Officer Warren Wheatley said in an interview. The financial services firm is the first listed company in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset, mirroring a strategy that propelled the valuation of companies such as Michael Saylor’s Strategy.com and Japan’s Metaplanet.
Altvest, which has a market value of R52.8 million ($3 million), will hold the cryptocurrency as a core reserve asset on its balance sheet, similar to how firms traditionally own cash or gold. Smaller companies are trying to emulate Saylor’s firm, which is valued at more than $120 billion, by raising funds to accumulate a hoard of their own and bet that the move will lure long-term investors.
“Pension funds, retirement annuities, unit trusts and others usually cannot directly buy Bitcoin,” Wheatley said. “But by buying our shares, they will now be able to get exposure in a regulated way through equity.”
Bitcoin, which has surged 95% in the past 12 months, fell 0.4% to $110 942.53 as of 7:23 a.m. in Johannesburg. Altvest’s shares have dropped 25% in the same period.
The Johannesburg-based firm is raising funds from overseas and local investors and will also seek to list internationally, Wheatley said.
Apart from developed markets “we plan to also list on other African exchanges including Namibia, Botswana and Kenya, to provide people easier access to our share and with more Bitcoin exposure,” he said.
The company’s unit Altvest Bitcoin Strategies will represent CAEP Asset Managers, which is authorised by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, to provide crypto services.