“This is an excellent deal for Cornerstone and reflects the value of an e-money registration as well as our platform.”
Cornerstone FS has entered into a share purchase agreement for the sale of Avila, a registered small electronic money institution, to Aspire for a consideration of £300,000 to be paid in cash on completion.
Aspire operates as MulootMoney.com, a provider of payment accounts and lending services. The firm will also license the Cornerstone platform for a period of 12 months, which will generate a minimum of £290,000 for Cornerstone FS, a cloud-based provider of international payment, currency risk management, and electronic account services.
James Hickman, CEO of Cornerstone, said: “This is an excellent deal for Cornerstone and reflects the value of an e-money registration as well as our platform. As we have said previously, we have experienced strong trading momentum throughout the year, and it is great to now be ending 2022 having secured an additional £600,000 for next year. We look forward to reporting on our further progress.”
Cornerstone no longer needed Avila since FCA approval of FXPress as EMI
Cornerstone FS acquired Avila in October 2020 to gain a Small Electronic Money Institution in the United Kingdom.
However, in August 2021, subsidiary Cornerstone Payment Solutions (formerly FXPress Payment Services) was approved by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Authorised Electronic Money Institution – a license that supplants the more limited license held by Avila.
This made Avila disposable and the Cornerstone FS decided to realize the value of this non-core asset while also further monetizing the underlying Cornerstone platform as part of the transaction.
MulootMoney.com – Aspire’s brand – will utilise Cornerstone’s services for any FX payments made on behalf of its clients.
In 2021, Avila generated revenue of £197,996 and profit of £2,418. All of the revenue and the majority of the costs incurred by Avila were intra-Group related.
The disposal of Avila will be minimally beneficial to the results of the consolidated Cornerstone Group due to a small amount of standalone entity costs that will be saved following the disposal. The deal is expected to be approved by the FCA in Q1 2023.
