Vancouver, BC – CUV Ventures Corp. (TSX-V: CUV) (the "Company") recently issued its third quarter financial statements, and associated MD&A, and would like to provide some additional commentary with regards to its travel division, Travelucion.
As mentioned on several previous occasions, the Company's travel division experienced an unusually high incidence of cancellations during the past quarter, both during and, after the advent of Hurricane Irma. The effect of Hurricane Irma has been widely disseminated by the global press, echoing across the entire Caribbean travel sector as a whole with many companies being impacted negatively. Although the principal Caribbean tourism zones were not severely impacted by Hurricane Irma, as was the case with many other neighbouring Caribbean islands such as Puerto Rico, it appears that tourism in the Caribbean has suffered a longer than anticipated negative impact from the Hurricane. Tourists refrained from booking Caribbean destinations for longer than expected, predominantly due to the continued coverage on national media of those islands especially devastated. It is estimated by management that the Company suffered approximately CAD$800,000 loss of revenue in the quarter, from both cancellations and reduced bookings.
In order to mitigate the effect of future catastrophic and unpredictable events like hurricanes, the Company has made a concerted effort to build new functionality and new business opportunities beyond the Caribbean that will complement and enhance its travel division. These changes will both improve and diversify associated revenues generated by the Company's travel division. The inception of the global travel platform RevoluVIP allied to the successful integration of the Company's Amadeus GDS XML distribution license together with the planned IATA approval and, the inclusion of 134 worldwide destinations, means that the Company will take its travel business global in the coming months. Management believes that this increase in international destinations will mitigate the negative effects of natural disasters within a specific geographical region in the future.
Notwithstanding these new opportunities, the Company's travel bookings have recently shown signs of improvement, and management believes this will result in improved revenues and profitability going forward post-Hurricane Irma.
Further to its news release dated April 11, 2018, the Company wishes to clarify that on that day it granted its Chief Executive Officer options exercisable to purchase 2,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.11 per share for a period of 5 years ending April 11, 2023. The options are subject to a four-month-and-one-day hold period from the date of grant.
About CUV Ventures Corp.:
CUV Ventures Corp. is a multi-asset, multidivisional publicly traded Canadian company deploying advanced technologies in the; Online Travel, Vacation Resort, Mobile Apps, Money Remittance, Invoice factoring, Crypto Mining, Blockchain Systems, and Cryptotoken sectors.
Our flagship technology is RevoluPAY®, the Apple, and Android multinational remittance app, powered by blockchain protocols, and aimed at the worldwide + $595 billion family remittance market.
The ₡CU Coin Cryptotoken, allied to RevoluPAY®, promises to be the coin of choice for remittance senders, travelers, and the hospitality industry. Its increasing adoption across several spheres exemplifies its international perspective and future value amongst users.
The company's FinTech division continues to expand into this rapidly emerging segment, in which it; manages, operates and develops end-to-end digital platforms to monetize the blockchain ecosystem across a broad spectrum of leisure related industries, remittances, and finance.
A diverse division of the company, named Cuba Ventures, is involved in Caribbean Basin strategic investments. Similar to the United States NASDAQ listed Herzfeld Fund, the focus is to control noteworthy assets related to the Caribbean Basin (including Cuba). The division is comprised of numerous assets. A wholly owned subsidiary Travelucion Media is a duly licensed and bonded online travel company, Amadeus GDS affiliated, digital and print media powerhouse that specializes in travel marketing, electronic reservations, and online booking solutions. Travelucion owns a vast portfolio of web assets consisting of 432 Caribbean-centric websites in up to 5 languages which generate over 35 million page-views per year and direct traffic to Travelucion's online booking and e-commerce sites and proprietary online booking systems, also customized for white label deployment on third party booking websites for; Cayman Islands, Dominican republic, Aruba, Bahamas, BVI, Belize, Antigua, Jamaica and Cuba, offering bookings for hotels, private residences, car rentals, tours, flights and a variety of other types of specialized travel services.
In 2017, the company acquired equity in the Florida, USA based, licensed and bonded travel agency; International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC (IBTO), a Caribbean Basin focused travel facilitator operating trips in the region (including licensed Cuba trips for Americans).
In 2018, the company acquired equity in the Florida, USA based, Third Circle Publishing LLC, publisher of the esteemed and U.S circulated print and digital magazine Cuba Trade Magazine. CUV Ventures Corp owns an interest in some important print and digital media assets, reaching 10s of millions of consumers globally.
In 2018, the company acquired equity in the Toronto; Canada based, FINTRAC licensed, remittance company, Duales Inc. as part of the RevoluPAY® remittance app partner network.
In 2018, the company acquired equity in the Miami, USA based, Business advisory/consultant think-tank Havana Consulting Group, as part of the progressive acquisition of key Caribbean related but, non domiciled, businesses.
The Cuba Ventures division consulting team harnesses over 80 years of combined advisor experience in submitting and, obtaining approval, for joint ventures, joint production agreements, and import/export permits for foreign enterprises. More recently the company has taken a royalty approach for future agreements between third parties anxious to begin comercial operations with Cuba and, the company's Cuba Consulting Unit.
Through this methodology, the Company is gradually building a potentially valuable "future-ready", non Caribbean domiciled asset base while, in the interim, securing revenue, growth and unique opportunities present in the Caribbean Basin, with an emphasis on the Caribbean remittance industry and international corporate consulting for Cuba's estimated $86 Billion annual economy.
For further information on CUV Ventures Corp. (TSX-V: CUV) visit the Company's website at www.cuvventures.com. The Company has approximately 123,000,000 shares issued and outstanding.
CUV VENTURES CORP.
STEVE MARSHALL
______________________________
Steve Marshall
CEO
For further information contact myself or:
Nick Findler
CUV Ventures Corp.
Telephone: 604-639-3850
Toll Free: 800-567-8181
Facsimile: 604-687-3119
Email: info@cuvventures.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.