Valereum PLC - Forward Strategy Update

Date: 26 January 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Aquis Stock Exchange: VLRM)

Valereum Plc

("Valereum", "VLRM" or the "Company")

Forward Strategy Update

Valereum Plc (AQSE: VLRM), a company aiming to be the global market leader in the rapidly developing tokenised digital markets sector, is pleased to provide a strategic update following the Company's announcement on 21 January 2026 regarding the Share Subscription Agreement for USD 200 million medium term notes with Quorium Global Photonics SPC ("QGP").

Transaction Completion and Balance Sheet Impact

Under the terms of the Share Subscription Agreement:

1.     Valereum has received the USD 200 million principal amount of institutional-grade, senior-secured Qualified Medium-Term Notes (QMTN).

2.   These QMTNs generate an annual 7.95% coupon, providing USD 15.9 million of predictable recurring income per annum, paid quarterly until December 2030.

3.     On maturity, Valereum will receive the full USD 200 million principal.

4.    The 243,478,438 ordinary shares have been delivered to QGP. QGP has agreed to a long-term lock-in, with a limited monthly liquidity of up to 1.44% of its ongoing holding until a Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange listing.

The QMTNs give Valereum a strong, secure capital foundation and position the Company to accelerate its next phase of growth. 

Expanded Strategy Update

With institutional backing in place, Valereum has scaled up its strategy to build regulated digital market infrastructure for the future of global finance. The Company aims to unite RWA tokenisation and banking-as-a-service (BAAS), delivering end-to-end, compliant services for the digital asset era. Valereum's platform will span the full digital asset value chain, including onboarding, structuring, issuance, custody, payments, settlement, distribution and secondary trading. It will also provide market-leading crypto advisory and business development capabilities, supporting the sourcing and structuring of high-value assets such as Bitcoin and gold.

The Company will focus on investment across four areas:

1.   Tokenisation & issuance infrastructure

2.   Payments & banking services

3.   Custody, wallets & crypto-as-a-service APIs

4.   Distribution, advisory and origination

Together, these capabilities are expected to generate diversified, recurring revenues and support institutional adoption of tokenised assets.

Capital Deployment

Annual income from the QMTNs will be deployed primarily into revenue-generating platforms and ecosystem investments. Initial focus areas include natural resources (royalty and streaming), real estate, crypto arbitrage and tokenisation-led strategies where Valereum has a competitive advantage. The Company is targeting equity-style returns in excess of 15% IRR, with a multiple-on-invested-capital objective of up to 5x.

James Bannon, Chair of Valereum Plc, comments:

"The Share Subscription Agreement announced on 21 January 2026, is one of the largest investments announced on the Aquis Growth Market. The completion of the transaction has added $200 million to our balance sheet and provides guaranteed annual revenues of close to $16 million per annum for five years.

The availability of a further $1 billion of capital gives us the ability to pursue an aggressive growth strategy over the next 18 months, pushing us on our path to a Nasdaq or NYSE listing. We have fundamentally changed the scale, ambition, and positioning of the Group."

Pieter Scholz, Managing Director of QGP, adds:

"Valereum is not a passive investment vehicle. It sits at the intersection of capital markets, digital assets, and tokenisation. QGP recognised that this is a business where asset-backed capital can be put to work, not parked on a balance sheet. This partnership gives Valereum the financial certainty to lead the charge in the evolution of real-world assets."

For further information, please contact:

The Directors of the Company accept responsibility for the contents of this announcement.

Please visit the Company's website at www.vlrm.com

For more information, and the chance to have your questions directly answered by the management team, please head to our interactive investor hub via: Investor Hub.

IMPORTANT NOTICES

The Company holds cryptocurrencies or crypto assets in its treasury. Whilst the Board of Directors of the Company considers holding cryptocurrencies to be in the best interests of the Company, the Board remains aware that the financial regulator in the UK (the Financial Conduct Authority or FCA) considers investment in cryptocurrencies to be high risk. At the outset, it is important to note that an investment in the Company is not an investment in cryptocurrencies, either directly or by proxy and shareholders will have no direct access to the Company's holdings. However, the Board of Directors consider cryptocurrencies to be an appropriate store of value and potential growth and therefore appropriate for the Company. Accordingly, the Company is and intends to continue to be materially exposed to cryptocurrencies.

The Company is neither authorised nor regulated by the FCA, and the purchase of certain cryptocurrencies are generally unregulated in the UK. As with most other investments, the value of cryptocurrencies can go down as well as up, and therefore the value of the Company's cryptocurrencies holdings can fluctuate. The Company may not be able to realise its cryptocurrencies holdings for the same as it paid to acquire them or even for the value the Company currently ascribes to its cryptocurrencies positions due to market movements. Neither the Company nor investors in the Company's shares are protected by the UK's Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Cryptocurrencies may present special risks to the Company's financial position. These risks include (but are not limited to): (i) the value of cryptocurrencies can be highly volatile, with value dropping as quickly as it can rise. Investors in cryptocurrencies must be prepared to lose all money invested in cryptocurrencies; (ii) the cryptocurrencies market is largely unregulated. There is a risk of losing money due to risks such as cyber-attacks, financial crime and counterparty failure; (iii) the Company may not be able to sell its cryptocurrencies at will. The ability to sell cryptocurrencies depends on various factors, including the supply and demand in the market at the relevant time. Operational failings such as technology outages, cyber-attacks and commingling of funds could cause unwanted delay; and (iv) crypto assets are characterised in some quarters by high degrees of fraud, money laundering and financial crime. Prospective investors in the Company are encouraged to do their own research before investing.