The crypto-lending platform Nexo denied reports that it had walked away from acquiring its competitor Vauld and presented an updated takeover offer. According to The Block.
The day before, Vauld CEO Darshan Bathija stated that, “the negotiations, unfortunately, did not end successfully”.
The parties discussed the takeover since July, when Vauld suspended operations and announced a potential restructuring of the business.
After signing the preliminary agreement, Nexo extended the deadlines for making the final decision twice.
The company said that its proposal had been distorted by Vauld’s financial adviser — Kroll’s Singapore unit.
“The terms of the deal in the October 10, 2022 presentation to Vauld’s creditors’ committee were not presented to Nexo, but were drafted by Kroll without coordination. The conduct of Kroll Singapore raises many questions about the objective and independent approach of the administrator of possible restructuring scenarios,” the platform said.
Bathija said that Vauld is considering options for managing the process by an external fund. The company has drawn up a “short-list” of six initial candidates.
Nexo is confident that this route is not suitable for Vauld. The company believes that this choice will impose additional costs on creditors through hidden management fees.
The final offer includes a number of changes from the previous one. It softens the key performance indicators (KPIs) for resuming withdrawals.
“We have made several changes to the KPIs to increase the likelihood that Vauld’s clients will be able to meet them. For example, we removed the minimum absolute trading volume for trading on the Nexo platform. It is envisaged that the withdrawal fee will be reduced by 50% if Vauld’s clients from any jurisdiction cannot meet at least one of the indicators due to regulatory restrictions,” explained Nexo co-founder Anton Trenchev.
According to the other co-founder Kalina Metodieva, Nexo has not abandoned attempts to save Vauld and help creditors recover as much as possible.
In November, Vauld secured an extension of creditor protection until January 20, 2023.
Follow ForkLog’s bitcoin news on our Telegram — crypto news, rates and analytics.