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Bitcoin craze: BigB gets over $100 mn top-up;wiped out in days

Agencies
December 25, 2017

New Delhi, Dec 25: The Bitcoin frenzy, which is the new investment fad, has not spared even Bollywood megastar, Amitabh Bachchan.

The crazy swings of Bitcoin prices added more than USD 100 million to the star's fortunes within days, but most of it got wiped out even faster -- thanks to a small stake in a hitherto unknown firm associated with the web of cryptocurrencies.

There may be further such fluctuations with the craze for Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies continuing to drive their prices. The regulatory risks remain a big drag on the prices that saw Bitcoin skyrocketing to near USD 20,000 just a few days back before plunging back by almost half and then again recovering to USD 15,000 level.

While lakhs of Indians are said to have taken a fancy to the Bitcoin and other such virtual currencies, Bachchan is probably the first big name from the country to get associated with this big buzzword -- albeit indirectly and because of a small investment that is at least 3-4 years old.

The link is a Hyderabad-based company named Stampede Capital, which describes itself as a "research-driven global trade house" and a "liquidity provider and market maker" at various exchanges driving "millions of dollars trading volume every day across the globe in nanoseconds".

In its regulatory filings, the company lists Bachchan as an "individual non-promoter shareholder" with a small stake of 2.38 per cent at the end of last quarter. As per the BSE records, Bachchan figures on the list of shareholders (with 1 per cent or more stake) since at least June 2014, though the quantum he is holding has been changing somewhat.

As on June 30, 2014, Bachchan held 3.39 percent in the company which could have been worth around Rs 9 crore at that time (going by the share price around then), while the value of his latest holding is almost half at about Rs 4.7 crore.

The Bitcoin-driven top-up to Bachchan's fortunes comes in the backdrop of Stampede recently listing one of its subsidiaries, Longfin Corp, on the Nasdaq exchange in the US.

Longfin got listed on Nasdaq last week with a market cap of USD 370 million, after it sold shares in a public offer at USD 2.5 a piece. Stampede now owns 37.14 percent stake in Longfin, by virtue of which Bachchan (with his 2.38 percent stake in Stampede) becomes an indirect beneficiary in the US-listed firm.

The stock suddenly saw a huge two-day surge of 2,500 percent post announcement of an acquisition of Ziddu.com, a website that claims to specialise in providing warehouse coins, powered by the blockchain technology, to importers and exporters of commodities against their warehouse receipts.

This made Longfin one of the few listed stocks with direct or indirect association with the Bitcoin buzz.

Longfin acquired the website from a Singapore-based entity named Meridian Enterprises Pvt Ltd, in which 95 percent of the equity was owned by Venkat S Meenavalli, the CEO and chairman of Longfin Corp and also the main promoter of Stampede.

Longfin has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Meridian, and with related affiliates collectively represented by Hong Kong-based Galaxy Media Ltd in exchange for 2.5 million restricted Class A common shares of the company -- and here comes another Bachchan link.

As per the regulatory filings made by Longfin with the US regulator SEC, the distribution of these 2.5 million shares for the acquisition of Ziddu.com is like this -- 2.15 million to Meridian, 100,000 shares to Galaxy Media, 125,000 to Amitabh Bachchan and another 125,000 to his son Abhishek Bachchan.

At the current stock price of USD 41, Longfin shares of the two Bachchans would be worth about USD 10.25 million.

The indirect holding, owing to Stampede stake, would be worth further USD 30 million going by the current market cap of about USD 3.4 billion of Longfin. The current market cap is itself nearly 10-times of the listing level.

An analysis of Longfin share price since its listing shows that it had hit a high of USD 142.82 each on December 18, when the market cap was over USD 10 billion.

At that peak, the value of Longfin shares, which the Bachchans got as part of Ziddu.com deal, was over USD 30 million. Besides, the indirect ownership through Stampede stake was worth about USD 100 million at the peak valuation.

On the other hand, all these holdings were just worth about USD 1 million before the listing, taking into account the USD 2.5 apiece public offer price proposed by Longfin. Now, the direct and indirect holdings are worth an estimated USD 40 million -- still over USD 100 million below the peak.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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Agencies
August 5,2020

New Delhi, Aug 5: Playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam on Wednesday confirmed testing positive for COVID-19 with 'mild' symptoms.

The 74-year-old musician shared the information through a video message posted on his official Facebook page.

In the video, the singer detailed about having a little "discomfort" for two days, stating he had chest congestion along with cold and on-off fever, which led him to get tested for the virus.

However, he also mentioned that he could have stayed at home in self-quarantine, as advised, but did not want to put his family in danger, and hence got admitted by his own choice, to recover quickly.

"I am in good hand, I am in good health. Nobody has to worry about this. The fever has subsided, and in two days I'll be discharged and I'll be home. Thanks for the concern," he said in the video message.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Actor Bhumi Pednekar on Monday pledged to feed over 550 impoverished families as a mark of tribute to late Bollywood actor and her 'Sonchiriya' co-star Sushant Singh Rajput.

Pednekar made the announcement through an Instagram post where she shared a picture of the departed actor and penned down a note along with it.

"I pledge to feed 550 impoverished families through the Ek Saath Foundation in the memory of my dear friend. Let us show compassion and love towards everyone that is in need, now more than ever," Pednekar wrote.

The two actors shared screen space in the Abhishek Chaubey directorial which continues to be a critically acclaimed film.

Rajput was found dead at his Mumbai's Bandra residence earlier this month. The detailed post-mortem report has also confirmed that he died by "asphyxia due to hanging."

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