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RNS Number : 8176I  Connecting Excellence Group PLC  25 November 2025

25 November 2025

 

Connecting Excellence Group Plc

 

("Connecting Excellence Group", "XCE", the "Group" or the "Company")

 

Intention to Float

 

Application for Admission to trading on the Aquis Growth Market

Placing and Subscription to raise a minimum of £1.5 million

 

Connecting Excellence Group Plc ("XCE"), the international executive
recruitment group with a long term, ambitious and disciplined Bitcoin treasury
strategy, is pleased to announce its intention to seek the admission of its
Ordinary Shares to trading on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market (the
"Aquis Growth Market"). Admission to the Aquis Growth Market is expected to
occur on or around the 9 December 2025 under the TIDM 'XCE'.

 

As part of its Admission to Aquis, the Company intends to raise a minimum of
£1.5 million from institutional investors, by way of a placing and
subscription of New Ordinary Shares at 2.1 pence per share, to support XCE's
Bitcoin treasury strategy and future growth.

 

The Company also intends to raise further funds via a retail offer through the
Winterflood Retail Access Platform ("WRAP") and will share further details in
due course.

 

AlbR Capital Limited is the Company's Aquis Adviser and is also its Joint
Broker together with Allenby Capital Limited.

 

Highlights:

 

·    Scalable Executive Recruitment Platform with Bitcoin Treasury
Synergies: XCE aims to build a scalable executive recruitment platform that
grows directly from its forward-looking Bitcoin treasury strategy. The Group
has held Bitcoin as its primary corporate reserve asset since 2021, adopting a
disciplined buy-and-hold approach through an 80% market drawdown. It currently
holds 9.27 Bitcoin at an average cost of £37,500 per Bitcoin, with plans to
accelerate treasury growth post-IPO by allocating surplus operating cash flows
and raising capital incrementally to increase Bitcoin per share.

 

·    Profitable Operating Business: XCE's flagship subsidiary, Spencer
Riley Limited ("Spencer Riley"), was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in
Leeds, UK. It is an international executive search firm specialising in
high-calibre placements across diverse sectors including engineering,
logistics, life sciences, professional services, and B2B services. With over
70% of FY2025 revenues from international clients, Spencer Riley is profitable
and cash-generative, delivering £1.52 million in revenue and £659,000 in
gross profit in the last financial year. Since 2021, it has realised a
compound annual revenue growth rate of 37%.

 

·    Expert Leadership and Board: XCE is led by an experienced team
combining operational excellence in recruitment with strategic Bitcoin and
capital markets expertise. Board members include:

o  Founder and CEO Scott Ellam, a seasoned recruitment leader and Bitcoin
strategist, with over a decade of experience driving the growth of a
high-performing executive search firm and building Bitcoin on its balance
sheet.

o  CFO Angus Gladish, a finance professional with over 15 years advising on
AIM and Main Market companies, having previously worked for Cambridge
Management Consulting, KPMG, Brewin Dolphin, and Evolution Securities.

o  Non-Executive Chairman Sam Roberts, the Director of Investment Consulting
at Cartwright, is widely recognised for leading the first UK pension scheme to
make a direct Bitcoin investment.

o  Non-Executive Director Vijay Selvam, both an attorney and a solicitor with
over a decade at Goldman Sachs, an expert in digital assets and traditional
finance, and author of 'Principles of Bitcoin'.

o  Board Advisor Richard Byworth, a leading Bitcoin strategy specialist, is
Chairman at Future, a Swiss based Bitcoin treasury company. Since 2022 he has
been Managing Partner at Syz Capital, where he spearheads the BTC Alpha Fund -
a Bitcoin-denominated fund with assets under management of approximately 4,000
Bitcoin. He also has roles as a Board Member at Relai, a Swiss Bitcoin
company, and as an Advisor at JAN3, where he aids nation-states in Bitcoin
adoption.

 

·    Strategic Bitcoin Investors: Early investment from prominent Bitcoin
leaders, including Adam Back, the CEO and Co-Founder of Blockstream and the
inventor of Hashcash, the proof-of-work algorithm that underpins Bitcoin
mining. Adam Back is the future CEO of the US-based 'Bitcoin Standard Treasury
Company', which has an expected valuation of approximately USD $3.5 billion
and holds over 30,000 BTC.

 

·    Talent Attraction Leverage: The growth of executive search firms
depends on attracting and retaining top talent. XCE enhances its appeal by
aligning Bitcoin treasury upside with equity performance. A targeted employee
share option scheme, tied to individual revenue and profit metrics, will
reward current and future talent with operating success and share price
growth.

 

·    Bitcoin Recruitment Division: XCE's aim is to become a global leader
in Bitcoin executive recruitment, connecting executives passionate about
Bitcoin with companies looking for Bitcoin expertise. XCE believes that the
emergence of global corporate Bitcoin adoption will provide a substantial
market opportunity, with a recent Deloitte research paper highlighting that
nearly one out of four North American Chief Financial Officers expect their
organisation to adopt digital assets for business functions in the next two
years (Deloitte, July 2025).

 

·    Market Opportunity: The executive recruitment sector in 2025 provides
a strong opportunity and is a growing market, valued at around USD 58 billion
and expected to reach USD 94.73 billion by 2033, with a 10.26% annual growth
rate (Mordor Intelligence, Sept 2025).

 

 

Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer of Connecting Excellence Group,
commented:

 

"We are delighted to announce our intention to list XCE on Aquis, bringing the
UK's first international executive recruitment group built on a Bitcoin
standard to shareholders and marking an exciting next step in our growth.

 

"XCE's profitable and growing international executive recruitment business is
uniquely positioned to deliver compounding growth as a result of its Bitcoin
strategy. Our Bitcoin treasury will help drive operational growth by
attracting top talent through performance-based equity incentives, ultimately
generating more immediate and ongoing capital that in turn can be reinvested
to strengthen our Bitcoin treasury. This presents a truly counter-cyclical
revenue generation model, and its low correlation with Bitcoin's price
movements will allow us to keep purchasing Bitcoin even during market
downturns.

 

"Importantly, this structure also helps ensure that all our stakeholders,
including current and future employees, are aligned and motivated to create
long-term shareholder value. By connecting human capital to digital capital,
XCE will be at the core of the future corporate Bitcoin adoption story.

 

"We are energised by the future opportunity and look forward to updating the
market on our progress."

 

Contact:

 

 Connecting Excellence Group                                      Tel: +44 113 390 8623

 Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer

 Angus Gladish, Chief Financial Officer

 AlbR Capital Limited (Aquis Corporate Adviser and Joint Broker)  Tel: +44 20 7469 0930

 Allenby Capital (Joint Broker)                                   Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656

 Nick Harriss

 Matt Butlin

 Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR)                                  Tel: +44 (0)20 3004 9512

 Charles Goodwin                                                  xce@yellowjerseypr.com

 Annabelle Wills

 Alex Crean

 

About Connecting Excellence Group Plc ("XCE"):

 

XCE 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 cashflows. 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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