RCS - ConnectingExcellence - Intention to Float

Royal Bank of Canada

25/11/2025 07:00

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
Scott Ellam, Chief Executive Officer
Angus Gladish, Chief Financial Officer
Tel:+44 113 390 8623
AlbR Capital Limited (Aquis Corporate Adviser and Joint Broker)
Tel: +44 20 7469 0930
Allenby Capital (Joint Broker)
Nick Harriss
Matt Butlin
Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 5656
Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR)
Charles Goodwin
Annabelle Wills
Alex Crean
Tel: +44 (0)20 3004 9512
xce@yellowjerseypr.com

 

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.

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.

 
  END

 

 
NRAPPGCCGUPAPGC