11 December 2025
Connecting Excellence Group Plc
("Connecting Excellence Group", "XCE", the "Group" or the "Company")
Admission to Aquis, First Day of Dealings and Fundraising
XCE raises total of £3.3 million through IPO
Connecting Excellence Group Plc (AQSE: XCE), the international executive recruitment group with a long term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin treasury strategy, announces that its Ordinary Shares will today be admitted to trading on the Aquis Growth Market ("Admission"). Dealings will commence at 8:00 am under the ticker 'XCE'. The Company's ISIN is GB00BVBHDF21.
Further to the £500k raised through its several times oversubscribed WRAP Retail Offer, as announced on 8 December 2025, XCE has successfully raised gross proceeds of a further £2.8m through a Placing and Subscription for a total of 133,333,341 new Ordinary Shares with institutional and other investors at the price of £0.021 per share. The Company notes that the Placing, like its WRAP Retail offer, was significantly oversubscribed. The Company has now raised a total of £3.3m through its IPO. Based on the Placing Price, the Company's market capitalisation is approximately £8 million at Admission.
The Company's Admission Document is available on the Company's website: https://xce.io.
Placing details
Trading will commence on AQSE at 08:00 am London time on 11 December 2025 (TIDM: XCE)
| ISIN | GB00BVBHDF21 |
| Placing Price | £0.021 |
| Total Subscription Shares to be issued pursuant to the Subscription | 73,009,523 |
| Total Placing Shares to be issued pursuant to the Placing | 60,323,818 |
| Number of Retail Offer Shares to be issued pursuant to the Retail Offer | 23,809,525 |
| Enlarged Share Capital on Admission | 382,165,687 |
| Subscription Shares, Placing Shares and Retail Offer Shares as a percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital | 41.12% |
| Number of options over Ordinary Shares on Admission | 42,000,000 |
| Fully diluted Enlarged Share Capital | 424,165,687 |
| Estimated gross proceeds of the Fundraising | £3,300,000 |
| Estimated net proceeds of the Fundraising | £2,493,200 |
| Market Capitalisation on Admission at the Placing Price | £8,025,479 |
Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer of Connecting Excellence Plc, commented:
"After experiencing high investor demand to participate in our IPO, we are delighted to be joining the Aquis Growth Market at such an important stage in our journey. XCE is a first mover at the intersection of international executive recruitment and corporate Bitcoin adoption, and we believe we are well placed to deliver long-term value for our shareholders.
"Our business model brings together two mutually reinforcing growth engines: a scalable, profitable recruitment platform combined with a Bitcoin treasury strategy. This public approach allows us to attract high performing revenue generating talent to the scalable recruitment business, which in turn strengthens XCE's ability to increase Bitcoin per share and XCE's appeal in the capital markets.
"Listing on Aquis reflects our commitment to transparency and sustainable growth, and we are excited to welcome our new shareholders to the register and begin our next chapter as a public company."
| Connecting Excellence Group Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer Angus Gladish, Chief Financial Officer
| Tel: +44(0) 113 390 8623
|
| AlbR Capital Limited (Aquis Corporate Adviser and Joint Broker)
| Tel: +44(0) 20 7469 0930 |
| Allenby Capital (Joint Broker) Matt Butlin (Head of Sales) Nick Harriss
| Tel: +44(0) 20 3328 5656
|
| Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR) Charles Goodwin, Alex Crean
| Tel: +44(0) 20 3004 9512
|
The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.
About Connecting Excellence Group Plc ("XCE"):
XCE (https://xce.io) is an international executive recruitment group with a long-term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin treasury strategy. The flagship recruitment company, Spencer Riley, places senior executives with clients globally across a number of high-growth markets including engineering, logistics, life sciences, automation, tech, professional services and B2B services.
The Bitcoin treasury strategy sets the foundation for the Company's scalable recruitment business to attract and retain high-performing talent with individual performance-linked share option incentives to increase revenue, profit and cash flow. In the future, XCE can also expand market share through strategic acquisitions, at very little cash cost, using performance-based equity incentives to provide immediate and ongoing shareholder value. XCE is also building a dedicated Bitcoin executive recruitment division, enabling executives to find their role within either Bitcoin businesses or traditional businesses looking for Bitcoin talent worldwide and accelerating corporate education, integration and adoption of Bitcoin.
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