Connect with us

Technology

Crown Capital Announces Proposed Debenture Amendments and Default Waiver For 12% Secured Subordinated Debentures

Published

on

CALGARY, AB, July 3, 2026 /CNW/ – Crown Capital Partners Inc. (“Crown” or the “Corporation”) (TSX: CRWN) today announced that, further to its news release dated June 25, 2026 announcing the entering into of a share purchase agreement (the “Galaxy Transaction”) to sell all of the issued and outstanding shares (the “Galaxy Shares”) of its subsidiary, Galaxy Broadband Communications Inc. to Calian Group Ltd. (TSX: CGY) (“Calian”), it will seek approval of the holders (the “Debentureholders”) of the Corporation’s 12% Secured Subordinated Debentures (TSX: CRWN.NT) due December 31, 2026 (the “Debentures”) for a resolution (the “Debentureholder Resolution”) at a meeting of the Debentureholders to be held at the offices of the Corporation, 121 King Street West, Suite 840, Toronto, Ontario, on August 11, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) (the “Meeting”).

If approved by the Debentureholders at the Meeting, the Debentureholder Resolution would:

authorize and approve certain amendments (the “Debenture Amendments”) to the Corporation’s second amended and restated trust indenture dated October 25, 2024 (the “Indenture”) between the Corporation and TSX Trust Company (the “Debenture Trustee”) and authorize the Debenture Trustee to enter into a third amended and restated trust indenture with the Corporation (the “Amended and Restated Indenture”) to: 

(i)      permit the Corporation to complete the Galaxy Transaction free of the security interest created by the Indenture notwithstanding that the sale of the Galaxy Shares to Calian would be a sale of assets of the Corporation not in the ordinary course of business of the Corporation and, accordingly, not permitted under the Indenture;
(ii)      extend the maturity date of the Debentures from December 31, 2026 to December 31, 2027;
(iii)     grant the Corporation the option to further extend the maturity date of the Debentures for up to one year to December 31, 2028, provided that: (A) the Corporation pays all outstanding interest on the Debentures as at December 31, 2027; (B) the Corporation pays a fee of 0.1% of the principal amount of the Debentures to the Debentureholders for each month that the maturity date of the Debentures is extended, such fee to be paid concurrently with the interest due on the Debentures as at December 31, 2027; and (C) such option is exercised at least 30 days prior to December 31, 2027 and may only be exercised once;
(iv)     amend the interest payment dates from occurring annually on December 31 of each year to only at maturity or redemption of the Debentures;
(v)      prohibit the Corporation from paying any dividends on the common shares of the Corporation (“Common Shares”) or acquiring any Common Shares by way of an issuer bid while any Debentures remain outstanding;
(vi)     eliminate the ability of the Corporation to incur Senior Indebtedness (as defined in the Amended and Restated Indenture) following the repayment of the senior indebtedness of the Corporation to Sandton Investments IX (Luxembourg) S.A.R.L. (the “Sandton Indebtedness”) and the redemption of the $1,500,000 principal amount of unlisted debentures of the Corporation (the “2025 Debentures”), other than up to $1,000,000 of Senior Indebtedness to be used for general corporate purposes;
(vii)    remove the requirement that the Corporation use its best efforts to maintain the listing of the Common Shares and the Debentures on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”); and
(viii)   eliminate the ability of the Corporation to satisfy interest obligations by issuing and selling its shares through investment bankers under the Indenture; and

waive the default by the Corporation under the Indenture for the failure to pay the outstanding interest on the Debentures from June 30, 2024 to December 31, 2025 (the “Deferred Interest Payment”) on December 31, 2025 (the “Default Waiver”), subject to the requirement that the Corporation pay: (a) the Deferred Interest Payment; and (b) interest on the Debentures from January 1, 2026 to June 30, 2026 (the “June 2026 Interest Payment”), to Debentureholders within 30 days of the completion of the Galaxy Transaction (the “Deferred Interest Payment Deadline”). The Deferred Interest Payment and the June 2026 Interest Payment will be made to Debentureholders holding Debentures as of a record date to be set by the Corporation following the effective date of the Debenture Amendments. In the event that the Deferred Interest Payment is not made by the Deferred Interest Payment Deadline, the Default Waiver will be of no further force or effect.

The board of directors of the Corporation believe that the Debenture Amendments and Default Waiver provide the following advantages:

Completion of Galaxy Transaction: The Debenture Amendments will allow the Corporation to complete the Galaxy Transaction. Without the Debenture Amendments, the Corporation will not be able to complete the Galaxy Transaction.Payment of the Deferred Interest Payment and the June 2026 Interest Payment: If the Galaxy Transaction is completed, the Debentureholders will receive: (a) the Deferred Interest Payment, which will be approximately $161.82 per $1,000 principal amount of Debentures; and (b) the June 2026 Interest Payment, which will be approximately $60.00 per $1,000 principal amount of Debentures.Payment of Sandton Indebtedness: If the Galaxy Transaction is completed, a large portion of the net proceeds from the Galaxy Transaction will be used to repay the entire amount of the Sandton Indebtedness. This will significantly reduce the amount of the Corporation’s debt that ranks in priority to the Debentures.Redemption of 2025 Debentures: If the Galaxy Transaction is completed, a portion of the net proceeds from the Galaxy Transaction will be used to redeem the 2025 Debentures in accordance with their terms. This will further reduce the amount of the Corporation’s debt that ranks in priority to the Debentures.Elimination of Senior Indebtedness: If the Galaxy Transaction is completed, following the repayment of the Sandton Indebtedness and the redemption of the 2025 Debentures, the Corporation will no longer have any Senior Indebtedness ranking in priority to the Debentures. The Debenture Amendments will prohibit the Corporation from incurring any additional Senior Indebtedness in excess of $1,000,000. This will greatly improve the relative security position of the Debentures.Extension of Maturity Date: The extension of the maturity date, and the option granted to the Corporation to extend the maturity date for an additional year, will afford Debentureholders a longer period of time during which to receive interest at a favourable rate and to potentially receive a fee of 0.1% for each month that the maturity date of the Debentures is extended past December 31, 2027. The extension of the maturity date will also provide the Corporation with additional time to fund the repayment of the Debentures from the proceeds of asset sales or otherwise.Prohibition of Dividends and Issuer Bids: The removal of the ability of the Corporation to pay dividends on the Common Shares or undertake any issuer bids for Common Shares while any Debentures remain outstanding provides significant incentive for the Corporation to repay the Debentures and ensures that holders of Common Shares will not receive preferential treatment over holders of Debentures.

The effective date of the Debenture Amendments will be the later of: (a) a minimum of five trading days following the approval of the Debentureholder Resolution; and (b) immediately prior to the closing of the Galaxy Transaction once all conditions precedent to the closing of the Galaxy Transaction have been satisfied or waived, other than the release of funds and those relating to the Debenture Amendments. Further particulars of the expected benefits of the Debenture Amendments and Default Waiver are described in the management information circular of the Corporation relating to the Meeting (the “Circular”) and the related meeting materials, which will be made available under the Corporation’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and mailed to the Debentureholders in the coming days.

The Debentureholder Resolution will only be effective if passed by an extraordinary resolution of the holders of at least 66 ⅔% of the principal amount of the Debentures present in person or by proxy at the Meeting and entitled to vote in respect of the Debentureholder Resolution. Management recommends that Debentureholders vote in favor of the Debentureholder Resolution.

The TSX has conditionally approved the Debenture Amendments. The Debenture Amendments remain subject to the final approval of the TSX.

Debentureholders may vote on or before 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on August 7, 2026 by following the voting instructions set out in the Circular. Only Debentureholders of record at the close of business on July 8, 2026 will be entitled to vote at the Meeting.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain “forward looking statements” and certain “forward looking information” as defined under applicable Canadian and U.S. securities laws. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “continue”, “plans” or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements, management’s beliefs, expectations or intentions regarding the Debenture Amendments, the Default Waiver, the expected timing and completion of the Galaxy Transaction, the use of proceeds of the Galaxy Transaction, the anticipated payment of the Deferred Interest Payment and the June 2026 Interest Payment, the benefits of the Debenture Amendments and the Default Waiver and the receipt of Debentureholder approval. Forward-looking statements are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions that while believed by management to be reasonable, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning the specific factors identified in the Crown’s periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators. See Crown’s most recent annual information form for a detailed discussion of the risk factors affecting Crown. Crown undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information except as required by applicable law. Such forward-looking information represents management’s best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

SOURCE Crown Capital Partners Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Cboe Clear U.S. Receives SEC Approval to Expand Clearing Capabilities

Published

on

By

SEC registration enables Cboe Clear U.S. to clear binary securities options alongside futures, positioning it to support innovation across the market

CHICAGO, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), a leading global markets operator and pioneer in equity and index derivatives, today announced that Cboe Clear U.S., LLC (CCUS) has received temporary registration from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate as a Covered Clearing Agency.

The registration expands CCUS’s clearing capabilities beyond its existing authorities as a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-registered Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) to clear securities products in addition to futures and swaps products. Together with recent enhancements to its regulatory framework and product scope, the milestone positions CCUS to support innovation and emerging opportunities across a broad range of assets and markets.

CCUS will initially use its SEC registration to clear Cboe’s binary securities options tied to specified corporate key performance indicators (KPIs), which are planned to list on Cboe Options Exchange and be available on Robinhood in the fourth-quarter 2026. CCUS also recently received CFTC approval to clear margined futures broadly and continues to clear digital asset derivatives under its DCO designation.

“Clearing plays a critical role in bringing innovation to market,” said Dale Michaels, Head of Cboe Clear U.S. “These expanded capabilities position Cboe Clear U.S. to become an innovation lane to support new products and meet evolving customer needs, while maintaining the rigorous risk management standards that are fundamental to our business.”

These efforts complement Cboe’s longstanding partnership with The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)® and Cboe’s continued commitment to supporting the established clearing infrastructure for traditional equity options.

The development builds on the growth of Cboe’s established European clearing business, where Cboe Clear Europe has become the leading pan-European equities central counterparty, while expanding into new services such as securities financing transaction clearing. Together, these advances demonstrate Cboe’s ability to extend its clearing capabilities across markets and asset classes.

To support its own future growth, CCUS has strengthened its infrastructure over the past year, including electing in June to become a Subpart C DCO. In doing so, CCUS is voluntarily adopting the enhanced standards the CFTC applies to systemically important DCOs for financial resources, risk management and operational resilience, aligning with those applied to leading global clearing organizations.

About Cboe Global Markets

Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE) is a leading global markets operator with a long history of innovation in equity and index derivatives. Since launching the world’s first listed options exchange in 1973, Cboe has pioneered landmark products, including the introduction of S&P 500® index options and the creation of the VIX® Index, the world’s leading gauge of market volatility, reshaping how investors manage risk and access opportunity. Today, Cboe operates derivatives, equities, and FX markets, providing trading, clearing, and investment solutions for customers worldwide. To learn more, visit www.cboe.com.

Cboe Media Contacts

 

Cboe Analyst Contact

 

Angela Tu

+1-646-856-8734

atu@cboe.com

Tim Cave

+44 (0) 7593-506-719

tcave@cboe.com

Kenneth Hill, CFA

+1-312-786-7559

khill@cboe.com

CBOE-C
CBOE-OE

Cboe®, Cboe Global Markets®, and VIX ® are registered trademarks or service marks of Cboe Exchange, Inc and S&P 500® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. 

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may,” “might,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue,” and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

We operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price and new products and services competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes or changes in tax regimes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security vulnerabilities and breaches; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our business and operational dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; factors that impact the quality and integrity of our and other applicable indices; our ability to manage our global operations, growth, and strategic acquisitions, wind downs, divestitures, or alliances effectively; increases in the cost of the products and services we use; our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit, liquidity, market, investment, counterparty, and default risks, associated with operating our  clearinghouses; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing our business interests and our regulatory responsibilities; the loss of key customers or a significant reduction in trading or clearing volumes by key customers; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments or intangible assets; the accuracy of our estimates and expectations; and litigation risks and other liabilities. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.

We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any duty to update any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cboe-clear-us-receives-sec-approval-to-expand-clearing-capabilities-302918297.html

SOURCE Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Continue Reading

Technology

Hears Everything, Uploads Nothing: VoxNexus Launches Android’s First Low-Power On-Device Always-On Voice Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Published

on

By

VoxNexus’ new on-device ambient listening solution runs for 12 hours on 2.49% of a phone’s battery and never sends audio to the cloud

MADRID, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — VoxNexus (www.VoxNexus.ai) released VoxEdge, an on-device voice stack that brings speech recognition, translation and speech synthesis to affordable Android devices, entirely offline. VoxEdge supports speech recognition in 36 languages, translation in 103 languages, and speech synthesis in 45 languages—all running with no connection, no data bundle, and no cloud token bills.

AI should work for everyone, not just for speakers of a handful of mainstream languages. Yet across much of Africa, voice AI has been held back by scarce training data and the lack of targeted fine-tuning. Everyday speech also includes code-switching and dialect variation, while cloud-based inference costs can make deployment at scale expensive. 

VoxNexus’s solutions run entirely on device, and every query is free once the model is installed on the device. Its speech recognition model has as few as 65 million parameters and achieves a lower word error rate than open-source models nearly ten times its size.

“Under-resource languages aren’t small languages. Hundreds of millions of people speak them. Until now, AI models just haven’t learned them yet,” said Charles Shi, CEO of VoxNexus.

VoxNexus also launched VoxSense, an on-device ambient listening solution that uses only 162 mAh for 12 hours of continuous listening, around 2.5% of a 6,500 mAh phone battery. By keeping all processing on device, VoxSense makes always-on listening practical without draining the battery and without sending any audio to the cloud. Developers and device makers can easily integrate it through a license and a simple SDK. Developers can request a free trial here: www.VoxNexus.ai.

VoxSense and VoxEdge were unveiled at the MediaTek Dimensity 9600 launch in Madrid on October 19.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of VoxNexus AI. 

About VoxNexus:
VoxNexus builds AI that hears and speaks — for everyone, everywhere, all the time. Its audio intelligence runs entirely on-device, delivering low latency, built-in privacy, and zero token cost across any device with a chip. VoxNexus is headquartered in Singapore. Website: www.VoxNexus.ai. Contact: public@voxnexus.ai  

VoxNexus demonstrates live on-device speech recognition at the MediaTek Dimensity 9600 launch in Madrid on Oct. 19, 2026. Spanish and English conversations were transcribed in real time on the phone, with no cloud connection. (Photo: VoxNexus) 

Speaks Your Language, No Internet Needed: VoxNexus Brings On-Device Voice Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 100+ Languages to Affordable Android Devices

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hears-everything-uploads-nothing-voxnexus-launches-androids-first-low-power-on-device-always-on-voice-artificial-intelligence-ai-302918304.html

SOURCE VoxNexus AI

Continue Reading

Technology

team.blue extends €1.1 billion of its Term Loan B to 2032 in the largest software Euro term loan issuance in the last 12 months

Published

on

By

GHENT, Belgium, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — team.blue, a leading pan-European provider of digital solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) backed by Hg, CPP Investments and Sofina, today announces the successful pricing of an amendment and maturity extension for €1.1 billion of its existing €1.35 billion Term Loan B. The transaction priced on 22 October 2026, with the refinanced tranche extended from September 2029 to July 2032, reinforcing the Company’s prudent capital structure approach.

Strong demand from a broad group of institutional investors enabled team.blue to upsize the transaction twice in-market, taking the final deal size to €1.1 billion from a minimum initial launch size of €500 million, despite recent credit market volatility. Pro forma for the transaction, c.90% of team.blue’s term debt now matures in 2032.

The transaction comes at a time of significant momentum for team.blue, with continued double-digit revenue growth and strong cash generation supporting its deleveraging trajectory. Its products help Europe’s SMBs get online, get customers, get paid and stay compliant, and AI-enabled products are increasingly driving new customer growth. team.blue continues to innovate across its portfolio, from smarter tools within its brands to secure European cloud hosting built for customers’ growing AI workloads. Its category-leading SaaS brands are also integrating with leading AI assistants, bringing team.blue’s products to customers wherever they work.

Transaction highlights

The largest software Euro term loan issuance in the last 12 months€1.1 billion Term Loan B, borrowed by team.blue Finco S.à r.l., maturing July 2032Priced at E + 425bps with a 0% floor and an OID of 98.5Upsized twice from an initial €500 million, reflecting a heavily oversubscribed order bookCorporate and facility ratings of B3 (Moody’s) and B (S&P), both with stable outlooksBofA acted as Global Coordinator and Left Lead Physical Bookrunner, alongside Barclays. ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Citi, ING and J.P. Morgan acted as Bookrunners

Jonathan Thackray, Chief Financial Officer of team.blue, said:
“We set out to extend €500 million of our Term Loan B, and the depth of support from our institutional investor base allowed us to go much further. This reflects confidence in team.blue’s highly recurring, cash-generative model and our position as a leading digital partner for Europe’s SMBs. It gives us the flexibility to keep innovating and investing in the digital and AI-enabled tools our customers rely on.”

About team.blue
team.blue is the pan-European digital partner for small and medium businesses, serving more than 3.5 million customers in 24 countries. From web hosting, domains, email and cloud and AI infrastructure to e-commerce, engagement, payments and compliance tools, team.blue helps SMBs get online, get customers, get paid and stay compliant. Supported by more than 4,000 employees, team.blue’s vision is to make online business success simpler, with artificial intelligence at every step. 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/teamblue-extends-1-1-billion-of-its-term-loan-b-to-2032-in-the-largest-software-euro-term-loan-issuance-in-the-last-12-months-302918306.html

Continue Reading

Trending