Bitcoin mania how big b and family's $250,000 investment rose to $17 5 mn

Bitcoin mania: How Big B and family's $250,000 investment rose to $17.5 mn

Bitcoin mania: How Big B and family's $250,000 investment rose to $17.5 mn on Business Standard.

Bachchans received 250,000 shares of LongFin following the asset purchase

Latest News Amitabh Bachchan, the Kaun Banega Crorepati host, undoubtedly knows how to build his wealth. As bitcoin mania reaches a fever pitch, the value of a stock investment by the Bachchan family has risen from $250,000 to $17.5 million in two and a half years. The Bachchans, one of Hindi cinema’s biggest names, had made their first significant equity investment in an overseas company through the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) in 2015.

Business Standard reported in 2015 that the father-son duo, Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek invested $250,000 (approximately Rs 1.57 crore) in Meridian Tech Pte Limited.

Back then, Meridian Tech was not very well known. That dramatically changed last week when Meridian's prime asset Ziddu-.com was acquired by another Meenavalli-backed overseas company LongFin Corp just two days after the latter's listing on NASDAQ. “The investments were made through two

separate accounts – $150,000 from Amitabh's account, and $100,000 from a joint account belonging to Amitabh and Abhishek,� Venkata Srinivas Meenavalli, founder and chief executive of Meridian Tech, told Business Standard.

What magic words like blockchain can do In December 2017, it is described as "a Blockchain technology empowered solutions provider" that offers microfinance using "cryptocurrencies across continents."

Thanks to magic words like 'blockchain' and 'cryptocurrencies', the LongFin stock rose more than 2,000% between last Wednesday and Monday, after surging over 2,500% on Friday when the deal to acquire Ziddu.com was announced.

"In lieu of their holding in Meridian Tech, Bachchans received 250,000 shares of LongFin following the asset purchase," Meenavalli told ET. At Monday's LongFin stock price of $70 a share, Bachchans' holding in LongFin is valued at $17.5 million (which at the current exchange

rate is approximately Rs 114 crore).

Amitabh Bachchan's wealth, investments Amitabh Bachchan, who was ranked 18th on the Forbes list of highest paid actors in the world last year, with earnings of over $20 million, already holds 3.4 per cent equity in Stampede Capital, a Hyderabad-based equity and currency broking, financial cloud and infrastructure services provider founded by Meenavalli in 1995.

RBI had announced the LRS scheme in February 2004 as a step towards further simplification and liberalisation of the foreign exchange facilities available to resident individuals. As per the initial scheme, resident individuals may remit up to $125,000 per financial year for any permitted capital and current account transactions or a combination of both.

READ MORE

Download Business Standard App