Clear Leisure Plc Bitcoin Mining Investment Update

 
TIDMCLP 
 
9 March 2018 
 
                               Clear Leisure Plc 
                      ("Clear Leisure" or "the Company") 
 
                       Bitcoin Mining Investment Update 
 
                      and Conversion of Debt into Equity 
 
Miner One Limited 
 
Clear Leisure (AIM: CLP) is pleased to announce that, following its 
notification on 19 January 2018 regarding the Company's 50% owned joint 
venture, Miner One Limited ("Miner One"), a blockchain data centre operator, 
the first data mining computers ("miners") have now completed testing and the 
Mining Mobile Unit ("MMU") is operational and ready to be shipped to its 
permanent home in Serbia, once the latest order of miners is fulfilled. 
 
Photos of the MMU can be found at clearleisure.co.uk/investments/miner-one. 
 
The Company can further confirm that the first fractions of Bitcoins have 
already been extracted in 'mining pool mode', where the available Miner One 
computing power has been pooled with other cryptocurrency miners and taken a 
portion of the mining results. This approach assures a continuous daily stream 
of fractions of Bitcoin mined, instead of waiting for the full 12.5 Bitcoin 
reward of a block, if and when mined (see Glossary, below). 
 
The results to date would indicate that the joint venture will likely produce 
more Bitcoins and at a lower average cost than originally envisaged. A DCF 
valuation over a period of five years, assuming, as at 8 March, mining 
profitability, mining difficulty, Bitcoin price, projected hash power and 
miners typology, estimated cost of energy and an 8% discount rate, generates a 
current valuation of EUR389,000, as compared to the Company's initial investment 
of EUR200,0001. 
 
Miner One has now placed an order for a number of Baikal Giant X10 units, 
currently one of the best performing and most profitable multi-crypto 
currencies miner machines available, as well as an additional order for a 
number of Antminer S9 and L3+ high-performing mining machines. The use of Giant 
X10 and L3+ units allows for the mining of different types of cryptocurrencies, 
which from time to time can be easier to extract and can be easily converted 
into Bitcoins, increasing the potential productivity of the MMU. 
 
Negotiations with the low-cost energy provider, located in Serbia, are now 
nearing completion and, when the next batch of miner machines has been 
delivered (expected within the next 10 days) and installed, the MMU will be 
shipped to the Serbian site. 
 
Debt Conversion 
 
On 21 September 2017, prior to the final Ivrea Court winding up petition 
hearing, the Company announced that it had entered into a EUR500,000 loan 
agreement with a UK private company to enable Clear Leisure to buy from a 
Mediapolis creditor the sum of EUR4.3 million of debt at an 88% discount to face 
value. 
 
The Company has agreed with the lender to settle EUR250,000 of the loan by 
issuing 22,321,429 Clear Leisure Plc 0.25p new ordinary shares ("the New 
Shares"), at 1p per share, a 31.6% premium on yesterday's closing share price 
of 0.76p. 
 
The New Shares will be credited as fully paid and will rank pari passu in all 
respects with the existing ordinary shares of 0.25p each in the capital of the 
Company, including the right to receive all dividends and other distributions 
declared, made or paid in respect of such shares after the date of issue. 
Application has been made for the 22,321,429 New Shares to be admitted to 
trading on AIM with admission expected to occur on 14 March 2018. 
 
The Company's enlarged issued share capital, following the above conversion, 
will comprise 390,946,049 Ordinary Shares. This figure may be used by 
shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which 
they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a 
change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's 
Disclosure and Transparency Rules. 
 
Francesco Gardin, CEO and Executive Chairman of Clear Leisure, commented: "We 
are very pleased with the rapid progress made by Miner One, following a 
successful test phase on the first Mining Mobile Unit, which is now ready to 
become operational. Although not yet at full power, it is already generating, 
indirectly, revenues for the Company. 
 
"We are also pleased with the EUR250,000 conversion of debt at a premium on the 
current share price." 
 
1 Key assumptions for DCF calculation: mining profitability based on 8 March 
2018 mining difficulty (3.29060598876e+12), Bitcoin price ($10,000), projected 
hash power (346 THs - tera hashes per second - although mining hash power 
needed varies depending on type of machine and cryptocurrencies mined), miners 
utilised (Antminer S2-9; Antminer L3+; Baikal Giant X10) and estimated cost of 
energy (EUR/KWh 0.04). 
 
                                    -ends- 
 
For further information please contact: 
 
Clear Leisure Plc 
[phone] 
Francesco Gardin, CEO and Executive Chairman 
 
SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker) 
[phone] 
Jeff Keating / John Mackay 
 
 
Leander (Financial PR) 
[phone] 
Christian Taylor-Wilkinson 
 
About Clear Leisure Plc 
 
Clear Leisure plc (AIM: CLP) is an AIM listed investment company with a 
portfolio of companies primarily encompassing the leisure and real estate 
sectors mainly in Italy. The focus of management is to pursue the monetisation 
of all of the Company's existing assets, through selected realisations, 
court-led recoveries of misappropriated assets and substantial debt-recovery 
processes. The Company has recently launched a joint venture initiative in the 
cryptocurrency mining sector. For further information, please visit, 
www.clearleisure.co.uk 
 
Glossary of Terms 
 
Bitcoin Mining 
 
Bitcoin mining is the process of using computer hardware to do mathematical 
calculations for the Bitcoin network in order to confirm transactions. Miners 
collect transaction fees for the transactions they confirm and are awarded 
bitcoins for each block they verify. 
 
Block 
 
Blocks are found in the Bitcoin blockchain. Blocks connect all transactions 
together. Transactions are combined into single blocks and are verified every 
ten minutes through mining. Each subsequent block strengthens the verification 
of the previous blocks, making it impossible to double spend bitcoin 
transactions. 
 
Block Reward 
 
When a block is successfully mined on the Bitcoin network, there is a block 
reward that helps incentivize miners to secure the network. The block reward is 
part of a "coinbase" transaction which may also include transaction fees. The 
block rewards halve roughly every four years. The current reward is 12.5 
Bitcoins per block mined and will presumably be halved in mid 2020. 
 
Blockchain 
 
The Bitcoin blockchain is a public record of all Bitcoin transactions. You 
might also hear the term used as a "public ledger." The blockchain shows every 
single record of Bitcoin transactions in order, dating back to the very first 
one. The entire blockchain can be downloaded and openly reviewed by anyone, or 
you can use a block explorer to review the blockchain online. 
 
Difficulty 
 
Difficulty is directly related to Bitcoin mining (see mining below), and how 
hard it is to verify blocks in the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin adjusts the mining 
difficulty of verifying blocks every 2016 blocks. Difficulty is automatically 
adjusted to keep block verification times at ten minutes. 
 
DCF analysis 
 
Discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis is a method of valuing a project, company, 
or asset using the concepts of the time value of money. All future cash flows 
are estimated and discounted by using cost of capital to give their present 
values. 
 
Hash Rate 
 
The hash rate is how the Bitcoin mining network processing power is measured. 
In order for miners to confirm transactions and secure the blockchain, the 
hardware must perform intensive computational operations which is output in 
hashes per second (THs is tera hashes per second). 
 
Pool Mining 
 
As part of Bitcoin mining, mining "pools" are a network of miners that work 
together to mine a block, then split the block reward among the pool miners. 
Mining pools are a good way for miners to combine their resources to increase 
the probability of mining a block, and also contribute to the overall health 
and decentralization of the Bitcoin network. 
 
Source: https://support.blockchain.com/hc/en-us/articles/ 
213276463-Bitcoin-terms-glossary 
 
 
 
END 
 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 09, 2018 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)