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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Agencies
June 26,2020

Los Angeles, Jun 26: Warner Bros has moved its Christopher Nolan-directed espionage thriller Tenet from July 31 to August 12.

It's the second delay for the highly-anticipated movie, which was originally scheduled to release on July 17 but was postponed to July 31 due to coronavirus pandemic.

Warner Bros. is committed to bringing Tenet' to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it's time. In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release.

We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy, a Warner Bros spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline.

The studio has also delayed the US re-release of Nolan's sci-fi blockbuster Inception, in honour of the film's 10th anniversary, to July 31.

Tenet features John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Caine, Clemence Poesy, Dimple Kapadia and Himesh Patel.

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Agencies
March 24,2020

Los Angeles, Mar 24: In a bizarre video shot from her rose petal filled bathtub, pop star Madonna has called the coronavirus pandemic "a great equaliser".

The music icon said the virus doesn't discriminate between rich and poor.

That's the thing about COVID-1. It doesn't care about how rich you are, how famous you are, how funny you are, how smart you are, where you live, how old you are, what amazing stories you can tell.

It's the great equaliser and what's terrible about it is what's great about it. What's terrible about it is that it's made us all equal in many ways, and what's wonderful about is, is that it's made us all equal in many ways, Madonna said in the video while having a milky bath in tub full of roses.

The 61-year-old singer, who had to cancel two of her concerts in Paris due to coronavirus outbreak, also referenced her 1995 song Human Nature in the video saying we are all going down together .

According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the death toll from the virus globally has risen to 14,641 with 336,000 cases reported in 173 countries and territories.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Mumbai, Apr 8: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has started the process of transferring funds into the accounts of daily wage workers of the film industry, the Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) said on Wednesday.

The actor had recently pledged to financially support 25,000 daily wage workers who have been badly hit by the 21-day lockdown to contain the coronavirus spread in the country.

According to B N Tiwari, FWICE, President, Salman has made an initial payment of Rs 3,000 each to the daily wage workers of the film industry, starting Tuesday.

"We had given him the final list of 23,000 workers so far, who were in dire need of financial help. He is going to transfer money in installments as he doesn't want people to misuse it. He has transferred about Rs 3,000 to every worker yesterday and he will transfer money again after some time. We are thankful to him for helping our workers," Tiwari told PTI.

A source close to Salman said the superstar will continue to support the workers until the situation improves in the country.

"We have started the process from Tuesday. We will be giving sufficient money to workers monthly, we will also give money next month and if the situation is still the same, we will continue to financially help the workers till it doesn't return to normalcy," the source said.

FWICE said Yash Raj Films have also provided a financial help of Rs 5,000 to around 3,000 workers.

"Besides Salman, a lot of people from Bollywood have come forward to help the workers, including Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty, who have given Rs 51 lakh each. Boney Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor too have given money and there are few more who have offered financial assistance to the federation. We also received Rs 1.5 crore from the Producers Guild of India on Tuesday.

"The federation has received a total amount of Rs 3 crore from film industry people. We are yet to receive money from Netflix, which they had announced for daily wage earners and also from Amitabh Bachchan, who is going to provide ration to one lakh workers. He is going to provide coupons which we should receive in a day or two," Tiwari said.

He further said Bachchan's ration coupon for workers will also be given to other associations across the country, such as in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Karnataka.

Tiwari said FWICE is in the process of making another list of needy workers and then they will begin the process of transferring money.

"The Rs 3 crore that the federation has received will be distributed among our five lakh workers in Maharashtra. We will start sending money from April 14 in phases. Those who haven't received any financial aid will be helped first. We are in the process of making a list of such workers for the same," Tiwari said.

"FWICE has also begun distributing ration to workers in suburban Andheri and Jogeshwari. So far we have distributed 5,000 packets of ration and we will give more, he added.

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