LONDON, 21 June 2010 ? Gold-market development body the World Gold Council has joined Augmentum Capital, a London-based e-commerce investment fund, in making a £12.5m ($18.7m) investment in BullionVault.com, Bloomberg News reports today.
The world's leading gold trading and ownership service online, BullionVault was launched in 2005. Doubling its annual pre-tax profits in 2009 to £3.45m, it now cares for more than 20 tonnes of gold for its users, storing it in secure vaults in London, Zurich and New York.
BullionVault users also own 62 tonnes of silver, holding it in London.
This the first time that the World Gold Council ? which is owned by 15 of the world's largest gold-mining companies, and works to promote physical gold worldwide ? has taken a stake in a company that promotes gold investment, Bloomberg says, quoting an outside spokeswoman for the Council.
"We turned down a larger offer because we wanted to work with the World Gold Council," says Adrian Ash, head of research at BullionVault, speaking to Bloomberg by phone.
Augmentum is a private equity fund, formed last year and backed by RIT Capital Partners Plc, the London-listed investment trust run by UK financier Jacob Rothschild.
You can read the full Bloomberg story here.
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