Category: Canada

Photo: MEG Energy

MEG Energy Christina Lake Phase 1 facility.

Strathcona Resources Ltd. has formally launched its takeover bid for fellow oilsands producer MEG Energy.

Its offer, open until Sept. 15, comprises 0.62 of a common share of Strathcona and $4.10 in cash for each MEG share it doesn’t already own.

MEG said Friday that its board as well as legal and financial advisers will consider the offer. A special committee of independent directors will assist in that review.

The target company is urging shareholders to take no action until it has made a recommendation, which it expects to do within 15 days.

Also Friday, Strathcona announced an equity commitment letter with Waterous Energy Fund, whose CEO Adam Waterous is executive chairman of Strathcona.

The fund owns almost 80 per cent of Strathcona shares, and the new investment is worth about $662 million.

“WEF’s major further investment in Strathcona reflects our view that more than eight years into building Strathcona, our best years are in front of us. As part of the offer, we are asking MEG shareholders to join us as fellow shareholders in Strathcona and trust the Strathcona team as stewards of their capital,” Waterous said in a release Friday.

“We therefore believe it is important that we eat our own cooking, ensuring no one will be more focused on increasing Strathcona’s value beyond current levels than WEF. We firmly believe Strathcona represents compelling value at this price with a large margin of safety, and that we and the partners in our fund will do very well over the long run.”

Strathcona announced its ambitions to snap up MEG earlier this month.

On a call with analysts at the time, Waterous said his company and MEG have assets so complementary they are like “doppelgangers” or “brothers from another mother.”

Strathcona and MEG both extract bitumen using steam-driven techniques in eastern Alberta and don’t have fuel refining or retail businesses like some bigger oilsands players.

Shortly before the MEG bid was announced, Strathcona signalled its plans to become a pure-play heavy oil company when it announced the sale of its Alberta shale natural gas operations in three separate deals for a total of $2.84 billion.

It also said it bought the Hardisty crude-by-rail terminal in Alberta for about $45 million.

Strathcona shares rose more than two per cent to $29.42 in Friday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. MEG shares fell almost two per cent to $24.53.

MEG’s stock has been trading higher than the value of the bid, suggesting investors believe a better offer might come along. Analysts have said competing bids may come from oilsands majors like Cenovus Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. or Imperial Oil Ltd.

Canada’s main stock index slipped on Friday, as trade worries over U.S. President Donald Trump’s accusation in a social media post of China violating a tariff agreement offset positive sentiments about domestic economic growth.

“China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was down 0.3% at 26,133.45 points. However, for the week, the index was up 1.2%.

Global equities had initially rallied in the previous session, after the Court of International Trade ruled late on Wednesday to effectively block most levies imposed since January.

However, a U.S. federal appeals court temporarily reinstated Trump’s tariffs on Thursday, to consider the government’s appeal.

“People who were expecting to see some clarity in the market are going to be somewhat disappointed”, said Michael Sprung, president at Sprung Investment Management.

“When Trump says China has violated any sort of agreement the whole premise might be that he might do something retaliatory, which is going to be inflationary and harmful.”

Data showed, Canada’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter. But an increase in imports that led to inventory build-up, lower household spending and weaker final domestic demand showed that the economy was battling on the domestic front. Economists have warned that as tariffs continue on Canada, this trend will persist.

This comes ahead of the Bank of Canada’s rates decision next week. The market sees a 22% chance of a rate cut next week, down from 27% before GDP data.

The TSX has gained 5.4% so far in May and was set for its best month in six, boosted by investor optimism on easing of the global trade war earlier this month.

South of the border, U.S. consumer spending increased marginally in April as a rush to beat higher prices from import duties slowed.

On TSX, energy subindex fell 1.3% as oil prices headed for a second consecutive weekly loss.

Healthcare stocks fell 1.7%.

(MENAFN– Newsfile Corp)
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – May 30, 2025) – Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. (TSXV: CBIT) (OTCQB: CBTTF) (” Cathedra, ” the ” Company ,” or ” we “), a bitcoin company that develops and operates digital infrastructure assets with the goal of maximizing its per-share bitcoin holdings, today announces our first quarter (” Q1 “) financial results for 2025:

Q1 2025 Financial Highlights

Total revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2025, of C$6.5 million, compared to C$5.9 million during the three months ended March 31, 2024, an increase of 11%.

In March, we prepaid the outstanding C$5.7 million of principal on our 3.5% senior secured convertible debentures due November 11, 2025 (the ” Debentures “), for C$4.6 million of cash, representing a 20% discount to par (plus accrued interest). Additionally, the creditor surrendered for cancellation 10.9 million warrants to purchase subordinate voting shares at a price of C$0.12 per share until November 11, 2026.

To partially fund the repayment of the Debentures, we entered into a new loan for US$2.5 million, which is secured by approximately 50 of our bitcoin; carries interest at a rate of 13.0% per annum, payable monthly; and is interest-only until maturity on March 18, 2026.

Subsequent to quarter end, we repurchased and cancelled an additional 14,205,000 subordinate voting share purchase warrants for total cash consideration of US$75,002. These warrants also had an exercise price of C$0.12 and were set to expire in 2026 and 2027.

As of May 30, 2025, we hold approximately C$0.5 million of cash and C$7.6 million of bitcoin (52.5 bitcoin) for total liquidity of C$8.1 million. Our 52.46 bitcoin translates to approximately 6 satoshis (or “sats”) per share.

Q1 2025 Operating Highlights

In January, we announced a new 10-megawatt power purchase agreement in connection with a potential greenfield bitcoin mining data center development in Tennessee. This would mark our second site in Tennessee and is expected to achieve a cost of power of approximately US$30 per megawatt-hour. Upon final regulatory approvals, we intend to begin construction on the new site, which could be fully operational in as little as three months thereafter.

Also in January, we announced a new partnership with Synota Inc. (” Synota “), a software company that provides automated payments for C&I energy and hosting contracts to reduce financial risk and deliver consistent cash flow. Under the partnership, we utilize Synota’s tools to facilitate daily or weekly settlement of hosting bills, thereby improving cash flow cycles, reducing risk and simplifying back-office processes. This partnership has also added flexibility for Cathedra to accumulate bitcoin, by providing us the option to receive daily hosting payments in the form of U.S. dollars or bitcoin.

In March, we announced that Tirpitz Technology Holdco LLC (the ” JV “), a joint venture that owns and operates a 60-megawatt bitcoin mining data center in North Dakota (the ” North Dakota Facility “) and in which Cathedra holds a minority interest, entered into a binding agreement to sell 100% of the membership units in the JV to a third-party bitcoin miner for total cash consideration of approximately US$21.0 million. The agreement was contingent upon the completion of several performance milestones which were recently achieved, and we expect the transaction to close in the coming weeks (subject to closing conditions and customary regulatory approvals).

Management Commentary

“The first several months of 2025 have affirmed our all-weather strategy, under which we offer hosting services to third-party bitcoin miners while maintaining exposure to mining upside through our own fleet of machines and opportunistic profit-sharing arrangement with certain hosting clients,” remarked AJ Scalia, CEO of Cathedra. “During April, daily hash price hit lows of roughly US$40/PH, during which time the stability of our hosting business allowed us to continue operating without selling down our existing bitcoin strategy. In the weeks since, hash price has rallied nearly 50% as bitcoin has surged to new all-time highs, and we have benefited through our direct exposure to hash rate.

“We took important steps to optimize our capital structure, prepaying our outstanding convertible debt at a significant discount to its par value and cancelling a total of nearly 25 million warrants.

“Looking toward the future, we have contracted another 10 megawatts of power capacity at a new site in Tennessee, which would expand our data center portfolio by 33%. We continue work to expand this growth pipeline further.

“Finally, we recognize that obtaining a listing on a major U.S. stock exchange will meaningfully improve our liquidity, access to capital, and public profile, and continue to work toward bringing Cathedra’s shares to the deepest capital market in the world.”

About Cathedra Bitcoin Inc.

Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. develops and operates digital infrastructure assets across North America with the goal of maximizing its per-share bitcoin holdings. The Company hosts bitcoin mining clients across its portfolio of three data centers (30 megawatts total) in Tennessee and Kentucky and recently developed and sold a 60-megawatt data center in North Dakota, a joint venture in which Cathedra held a minority interest, closing of which is anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2025. Cathedra also operates a fleet of proprietary bitcoin mining machines at its own and third-party data centers, producing approximately 400 PH/s of hash rate. Cathedra is headquartered in Vancouver and its shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol CBIT and in the OTC market under the symbol CBTTF.

At time of publishing, the Company holds approximately 52.5 bitcoin worth approximately US$5.5 million and amounting to approximately 6 satoshis (or “sats”) per share.

For more information about Cathedra, visit cathedra or follow Company news on Twitter at @CathedraBitcoin or on Telegram at @CathedraBitcoin .

Media and Investor Relations Inquiries

Please contact:

Antonin Scalia
Chief Executive Officer
+1 (604) 259-0607
…

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this release about future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking information. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes but is not limited to information concerning: the potential for and merits of the Kungsleden acquisition; the benefits of the strategy to become a developer and operator of high-density compute infrastructure for bitcoin mining and/or other potential end markets; and other statements regarding future plans and objectives of the Company. Any statements that involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as “expects”, or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “forecasts”, “estimates”, “believes” or “intends” or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results “may” or “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time it was made. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of its normal course of business.

Additionally, these forward-looking statements may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Cathedra and general market conditions. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but instead reflect Cathedra’s management’s expectations, estimates or projections concerning future results or events based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made. Although Cathedra believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties, and undue reliance should not be placed thereon, as unknown or unpredictable factors could have material adverse effects on future results, performance or achievements of the Company. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are the following: an inability successfully integrate the Kungsleden business on terms which are economic or at all; a failure to realize the expected benefits of the business plan to develop and operate high-density compute infrastructure for bitcoin mining and/or other potential end markets; the risks of an increase in the Company’s electricity costs, cost of natural gas, changes in currency exchange rates, energy curtailment or regulatory changes in the energy regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates and the potential adverse impact on the Company’s profitability; revenue may not increase as currently anticipated, or at all; it may not be possible to profitably liquidate the current digital currency inventory, or at all; a decline in digital currency prices may have a significant negative impact on operations; an increase in network difficulty may have a significant negative impact on operations; the volatility of digital currency prices; future capital needs and the ability to complete current and future financings, as well as capital market conditions in general; volatile securities markets impacting security pricing unrelated to operating performance; historical prices of digital currencies and the ability to mine digital currencies that will be consistent with historical prices; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws and regulations both locally and in foreign jurisdictions; compliance with extensive government regulation and the costs associated with compliance; unanticipated costs; changes in market conditions impacting the average revenue per MWh; and the risks and uncertainties associated with foreign markets. Additionally, the forward-looking statements contained herein may be affected by risks and uncertainties in the business of Cathedra and general market conditions. Please see the Company’s management information circular dated June 18, 2024 which is available for view the Company’s SEDAR+ profile on . Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and such changes could be material. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking information other than as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit

SOURCE: Cathedra Bitcoin Inc.

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Following shareholder approval, Toronto-headquartered Barrick Gold has completed its name change to Barrick Mining Corporation and Société minière Barrick in French.

“Barrick’s vision is to be the world’s most valued gold and copper exploration, development and mining company. Along with our world-class portfolio of six Tier-1 gold mines, we are building a substantial copper business which will be a meaningful contributor to growing our production volumes in the coming years and beyond,” said Barrick President and CEO Mark Bristow.

“Barrick Mining Corporation and our new stock symbol, ‘B’, better reflect Barrick’s current business and our mission to achieve sustainable and profitable gold and copper growth. Gold remains core to our foundation and we will continue to explore for and develop new gold mines, including the expansion of Pueblo Viejo, the exciting Fourmile gold project in Nevada and exemplified by the Reko Diq project with its world class mix of both copper and gold.”

Barrick common shares commenced trading under the company’s new name on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) at the start of trading on May 9. Additionally, the ticker symbol for Barrick common shares listed on the NYSE changed from “GOLD” to “B.” Barrick common shares continue to trade under the “ABX” ticker symbol on the TSX.

EXCLUSIVE: Anne Watanabe (Cube, Stay Mum) and Jasper Pääkkönen are leading the latest international drama series hitting the market. They will star in Blood & Sweat, which brings together partners from three continents.

Japanese satcaster and streamer Wowow and Finland‘s Nelonen have co-commissioned the series, with Japan‘s AX-ON, a subsidiary of Nippon TV, and Finland’s ICS Nordic attached to co-produce. Canada’s Boat Rocker now boarding to take global distribution rights and another partner on the production. Japan’s AX-ON, a subsidiary of Nippon TV, and Finland’s ICS Nordic are also attached as co-producers.

The eight-part series, which Wowow teased earlier this year, follows Watanabe and Pääkkönen as detectives from different cultures whose shared sense of justice drives them to embark on a joint investigation into a mysterious serial murder case that stretches from Finland to Japan.

Production is underway in Finland and Japan. Boat Rocker’s Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier, Nick Nantell and Jon Rutherford are exec producing alongside Wowow’s Takashima, AX-ON’s Daniel Toivonen, who will also direct, and ICS’s Ilkka Rahkonen and Ilkka Hynninen. The series is produced by Wowow’s Keita Tsutsumiguchi, AX-ON’s Risa Tanoue and ICS’s Erna Aalto and Jarkko Hentula. Riku Suokas, Daniel Toivonen, Marie Iwasaki, and Heikki Syrjä are the writers.

“Though Japan and Finland are far apart, this project has revealed unexpected cultural harmony between the two,” said Tomomi Takashima, executive producer at Wowow. “With a powerful original story and an outstanding cast from both countries, it’s a unique and wonderful collaboration, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Boat Rocker to bring this special series to audiences around the globe.”

Wowow is known for international co-productions such as HBO Max’s Tokyo Vice, another noir-style drama made with partners outside Japan that ran for two seasons.

Ilkka Hynninen, Creative Director of ICS Nordic added that Blood & Sweat was “a great example of how international IP from Finland and Japan can be successfully brought to the international market. Developed in collaboration with our Japanese partners, this project blends Finnish and Japanese sensibilities to create a unique and exciting experience that resonates with global audiences and sparks the imagination of world citizens.”

Hynninen, who founded ICS Nordic with Ilkka Rahkonen, have focused on making shows for the global market since launch in 2022 and recently finished an international version of comedy feature ISMO – Breaking Bad English.

Writer and director Toivonen told audiences to be “prepared for something you have never even imagined seeing before as we mix the Nordic Noir genre with Japanese aesthetics and characters.”

“With deep mystery, intrigue, and action, Blood & Sweat is sure to captivate international audiences thanks to the bold storytelling from our creative partners,” said Nantell, who is Executive Vice President, Head of Scripted Creative at Boat Rocker Studios. “This exciting new project further underscores our commitment to strategically invest in premium scripted co-productions we believe in,” added Boat Rocker’s Jon Rutherford, President of Global Rights, Franchise and Content Strategy.

Toronto-listed Boat Rocker, originally known for unscripted, now sells international scripted series such as Irish comedy-horror Video Nasty, buzzy Australian drama Mix Tape and upcoming BBC Scotland and Sky New Zealand drama The Ridge.

The company is in the process of being sold to Blue Ant Media in a reverse takeover, but Boat Rocker bosses Ivan Schneeberg, David Fortier and John Young have formed a new biz, IDJCo, to buy Boat Rocker Studios and their brand management and franchise management operations. Once the transaction is completed, their new company will be named Boat Rocker once again, as Blue Ant establishes a Toronto Stock Exchange-listed business, Blue Ant Media Corporation.