London, England--(Newsfile Corp. - October 27, 2023) - The Reputation Exchange (REPX) has presented its strategic report, report of the directors and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022 and its half-yearly report 2023. The past year, 2022, was a very difficult year for REPX and all the fintech sector. While, at the end of 2021, all of the Company's goals had been achieved - in particular with the market launch of the first prepaid PAYFAN card (that of AC Milan, winner of the Italian football championship), and the approval by the FCA (Financial Conduit Authority) of the IPO Prospectus on the London Stock Exchange Standard Listing. Since then, the Company has been forced to go through an unexpected series of negative events, a "perfect storm" hitting the Company and caused by external and internal causes, from which it is, however, emerging stronger than before.
On the external side, all the fintech sector was hit by a sharp downturn. The Sector Index (F-Prime Fintech Index) was dropping during 2022 by an incredible 79% from a high of 1260 on December 31, 2021, to a close in December 2022 at 265. This was affecting a lot of REPX's counterparts, both in the industry and in the finance sector. REPX's main Issuer and Partner lost its issuing license for all EU but UK, not allowing the Company to issue in EU for the time being. Its issuer in South America had a similar destiny. On the finance sector its Clearing Agent lost his FCA license, as it happened with one of its Advisor and Broker put in liquidation. This caused a knock-on effect on REPX: the listing on LSE was postponed to a future date and to a better overall market condition. The stock was suspended on the Cyprus Stock Exchange because of a missing Clearing Agent.
The Company, in fact, received, during the first semester of 2022, signed subscriptions by two investors for a global amount of Euro 5.5 Mio. This liquidity was largely enough to satisfy its cash need and supported the Company’s expected growth and success, while everything was set at the end of 2021 for this. For some reason, that are still under investigation, the money of these two large subscriptions never reached the Company accounts. There is allegedly evidence of misconduct and a possible game plan with the aim of an hostile takeover of the Company by not performing the subscriptions due. The Company is considering legal action against the two subscribers.
At the same time, very defamatory letters, with some false accusations, were sent to all REPX's counterparts, undermining REPX's reputation and some of its signed sports team agreements. And in the same moment, a serious infringement of its stored data and IT systems occurred. An investigation ordered by REPX, that was bringing to some clear evidence of wrongdoing, was leading to a specific criminal pursuit against some specific persons. REPX intends to continue to legally pursue everyone that is trying or has tried to damage the Company.
Even with all these very negative events - which cannot be blamed either on the Company or its Board of Directors and Management at the time – that were deeply affecting REPX, thanks to its loyal shareholders who were injecting loans to the Company up to £850'000, and to its loyal staff that were working hard even under those unexpected circumstances, the Company was able to achieve some important results which have been presented in the post balance sheet events. The goal for the last six months of 2022 was to bring back the Company into an orderly and manageable administration and to put the Company in a situation to restart its activity and growth.
Highlights:
- Just in the very last few months of 2022, the Company has reported its first revenue at £30'020. This income was generated from the go-to-market of the first REPX co-branded PAYFAN prepaid cards for the football clubs of AC Milan and Torino FC. The sale was then stopped for the above force majeure reasons with around 6000 cards issued in the market and 94'000 card printed and ready to go once restarting the selling. The launch of the PAYFAN AC Milan card was considered in the first weeks by industry insiders to be the best launch ever for a prepaid card in Italy. The launch of PAYFAN Torino FC's card, on the other hand, was halted due to problems related to the club's social media platform and will be resumed in another way. In any case, the Company is planning to restart sales of those and other products during 2023 or early 2024.
- The overall work to restructure the Company, from the negative attachment around June 2022, has brought to the nomination of a transition board in last part of 2022. It has brought a heavy reduction of the year-end loss that went from £1'901'813£ at 2021 year-end to the actual to £1.059M in 2022, a reduction of 44%, despite the fact that these numbers also include the prudent provision of £300k for possible liabilities and costs.
- Even considering that during 2022 around £850'000 new debt was created, and taking in consideration all the shareholder loans that have allowed the Company to continue operations without major problems (in view of the force majeure problems already mentioned at a time when it was inadvisable to turn to the market), the overall debts increased less than 1M. Therefore, virtually no new debt was created through shareholder loans.
- At the end of the year 2022 the number of Company shares outstanding was 3'388'614.
Post Balance Sheet Events:
- A new Board of Directors was established in March 2023 with the goal expressed shortly above: This new board is working hard and freely to relaunch the Company.
- The Proprietary Banking App was terminated, tested successfully, and got the necessary approval from the Issuer and all the counterparts to go live on Google Store and Apple Pay. With its investments, REPX can say that it built "not just an App, but the entire infrastructure to operate a financially regulated payment card".
- REPX entered an exclusive seven-year global card agreement with Visa, one of the world leaders in digital payments. This step will help REPX implement its business model and accelerate its strategic activity, and will better enable it to build business relationships in new territories around the world and develop digital banking solutions tailored to football and sports fans, as well as brands the fintech is working with to create innovative payment products. This places REPX in a great position to accelerate the development and penetration of its products through technology solutions such as the introduction of Visa Direct, which helps transform the movement of money worldwide, including remittances. REPX will also be able to add to its product portfolio the Visa Analytics Platform (VAP), a sophisticated machine for understanding spending behaviour and profiling fans and followers more intimately. This exciting relationship between REPX and Visa will continue to develop bringing new, innovative, engaging payment experiences to fans around the world.
- All the working contracts were reconsidered and reviewed to be more linked to performance.
- The first fully issued REPX's card, the prepaid card of the iconic football club of Glasgow Rangers, is expected to be launched before 2023 year end.
- The relisting on CSE is underway. As stated above, REPX Clearing Agent (a necessary figure for a listed Company, being the one who acts as an intermediary in the payment of funds and delivery of securities) lost its FCA licence. This had a negative impact on REPX. In the absence of this technical but necessary figure, the stock was suspended on the Cyprus Stock Exchange (a technical suspension, because of the technical impossibility of having securities traded). Currently, the re-listing on the Cyprus Stock Exchange is still in progress. The Company published in the terms required by the Cyprus Stock Exchange both its audited financials for 2022 and its half-yearly report for 2023. There remains the only purely technical obstacle of finding the figure of the Clearing Agent, for the search of which, after Brexit, it is becoming very difficult to find a figure that can reconcile the needs of integration into the European Euroclear system with an English Company that was instead included in the Crest circuit. For the future, the most efficient solution of switching to the Euroclear system is being considered in order to cope with this new difficulty generated by causes of major force such as Brexit, which is purely technical (and totally independent of the Company's will).
- In the first six months of the year 2023, the Company recorded over £240k in card-issuing related revenue, reducing its operating loss to £128k.
Media Contact:
marketing@therepx.com
About REPX
REPX is a fintech revolutionising traditional banking by combining technology and the passion of billions of fans worldwide with Social Media. REPX allows sports teams, celebrities, influencers, brands and iconic cities to innovatively connect with fanbases through exclusive co-branded prepaid cards, debit cards and digital products. REPX's portfolio of partners and brands creates maximum engagement of the social generation through electronic payments. Come and explore the many opportunities our platform has to offer by visiting us at www.therepx.com.
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