The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Sunday approved South Bangla Agriculture & Commerce Bank Limited’s proposal to raise Tk 100 crore from the capital market through an initial public offering.
A BSEC meeting, presided over by its chairman Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, approved the IPO proposal, said a BSEC press release.

The bank will float 10 crore shares at an issue price of Tk 10 each.
As per the bank’s IPO prospectus, the IPO proceeds will be used for enhancing the Tier 1 Capital Base of the bank.
The bank would invest Tk 95.18 crore in government securities and use Tk 4.81 crore to bear IPO expenses from the IPO proceeds.
The pre-IPO paid up capital of the bank is Tk 684.64 crore, the prospectus said.
As per the entity’s audited financial statements for the year ended on September 30, 2020, the bank’s net asset value per share (without valuation) and five years’ weighted average earnings per share were Tk 13.18 and Tk 1.24 respectively.
ICB Capital Management Limited is the issue manager of the company.
The BSEC, however, has imposed a condition that the bank would not declare, approve or disburse any dividend before it is listed on the stock exchanges.
SBAC Bank was incorporated on February 20, 2013 as a public limited company. It has 83 branches and 11 sub-branches across the country.
The Bangladesh Bank in 2013 gave licences to nine banks, including SBAC Bank, on condition that the banks would be listed on the stock exchanges within three years of the start of their commercial operations.
The other eight banks are Meghna Bank, Midland Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NRB Bank, NRB Global Bank, NRBC Bank, Farmers Bank (now Padma Bank) and Union Bank.
So far, only NRBC Bank has complied with the licencing condition.
On March 22, NRBC Bank made its debut on the stock exchanges after getting IPO approval from the BSEC on November 18, 2020.
There are 60 scheduled banks operating in Bangladesh. Of them, 31 banks are listed on the stock exchanges and the banks hold around 18 per cent of the total market capitalisation.

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Premium
The New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYSCRF) approved more than $38 million in capital commitments to China-focused investment funds in March, according to an investment report by Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller of the $248 billion pension fund.

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May 10, 2021

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Axelum Resources Corp. (AXLM) reported CP Compas Pte. Ltd. as principal stockholder with direct ownership of 799,999,999 AXLM common shares, or 20.405 percent of 3,920,571,000 outstanding common shares, according to the company’s public ownership report (POR) as of Dec. 31, 2020.
In its last buyback on Feb. 4, 2021, AXLM reacquired 10.294 million common shares on Feb. 4, 2021: 6.187 million at P3.40 each; 46,000 at P3.51 each; 36,000 at P3.52 each; and 4,025 at P3.53 each. The reacquisitions reduced its outstanding to 3,898,302,000 common shares from 3,908,596,000 common shares. It earmarked P500 million for AXLM repurchase of common shares of which it had spent P285.995 million. (The PSE website for AXLM still carries 3,908,596,000 outstanding with P1 par value.)
AXLM peaked at a 30-day high of P3.72 on Dec. 18, 2020 when it opened at P3.68; dropped to session low of P3.59; and closed at P3.60. It fell to a 30-day low of P2.80 on Jan. 27, 2021 when it opened at P2.99; hit a session high of P3; and closed at session high of P3.
* * *

Manila Broadcasting Co. (MBC) had 402,682,990 outstanding common shares, according to its POR as of Jan. 31, 2021, posted on the website of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
In its POR, MBC reported nine directors that compose its board, who, combined for direct holdings of 32,282 common shares, or 0.008 percent, chaired by Federico J. Elizalde, who directly held 94 common shares. The other directors were Ruperto S. Nicdao Jr., 5,530 common shares, or 0.00137 percent; Julio Manuel P. Macuja, 36 common shares; Eduardo C. Cordova, 12,779 common shares, or 0.00317 percent; Juan Manuel M. Elizalde and Robert A. Pua, 1,000 common shares each; Rudolph Steve E. Jularbal, 10,807 common shares, or 0.027 percent; and two independent directors (IDs) – George T. Goduco, 1,000 common shares and Marvel K. Tan, 36 common shares. The company credited the public with 41,174,741 common shares, or 10.225 percent.

MBC peaked at a 30-day high pf P12.80 on Jan. 13, 2021 when it opened at P12 and closed at session low of P11. On Feb. 3, 2021, it opened at session low of P11.12; climbed to P11.50; and closed at its high of P11.50. (The stock did not have 30-day low.)
* * *

Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC) had 996,391,254 outstanding common shares of which Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. was its principal stockholder as direct owner of or 79.948 percent, according to its POR as of Jan. 31, 2021. It credited 99,689,421 common shares, or 10.005 percent, to the public.
In its POR, Philcomsat attributed 11 directors, who make up PH’s board, 100,105,143 PHC common shares, or 10.046 percent, led by Santiago J. Ranada Jr., chairman and at the same time one of two IDs, along with Jose Ramon C. Ozamiz, 100 common shares each. The regular directors, who also held 100 common share each were Katrina Ponce Enrile, Daniel C. Gutierrez, Pablo L. Lobregat, and Julie Yap Daza; Erlinda I. Bildner, 1,200 common shares, or 0.0001 percent; Marietta K. Ilusorio, 10,000 common shares, or 0.001 percent; Oliverio Laperal Jr., 86,743 common shares, or 0.0087; Prudencio C. Somera Jr., 100,000,100 common shares, or 10.036 percent; and Victoria C. de Los Reyes, 6,500 common shares, or 0.00065 percent.
Like the POR, the PSE also listed 996,391,254 outstanding PHC common shares of which only 60 million common shares are publicly traded.
Philcomsat’s common shares remain suspended since May 2, 2007 when it opened, hit session high and fell at P1.40.

* * *
Golden MV Holdings was known as Golden Bria Holdings Inc. (HVN) before it changed its corporate name, which the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC approved on Jan. 21, 2016. It is still in “death care business” operating under the “Golden Haven” brand.
Manuel B. Villar Jr., with 1,000 HVN common shares (indirect), or 0.0001552 percent, is the chairman of the seven-person board, which indirectly held 3,170,302 HVN common shares, or 0.492 percent of 644,117,649 outstanding common shares. The other directors, including Villar’s, along with their indirect ownerships, according to the website of the PSE are Maribeth C. Tolentino, 2,835 million HVN common shares, or 0.00044 percent; Rizalito J. Rosales, 100 common shares; Frances Rosalie T. Coloma, 500 common shares; and Camille A. Villar, 333,700 common shares, or 0.0518 percent. The company has two IDs, namely, Ana Marie V. Pagsibigan and Garth F. Castaneda with a nominal common share each.
Golden MV peaked at a 30-day high of P460 on Dec. 15, 2020 when it opened at session low of P450 and closed at P450.63. It fell to a 30-day low of P420 on Jan. 4, 2021 when it opened at P420; hit a session high of P450; and closed at session high of P450.
With its change of corporate name, will Golden MV surge to beat P460? Just asking.
esdperez@gmail.

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Davao City—The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned consumers in the Davao Region against an investment scheme that promises members and business partners a 30-percent monthly interest for 1 year.
The SEC said in an advisory that Mer’s Business Center offers its investment scheme to the public through Facebook Live by Roger Camingawan as well as in his YouTube channel.
“Records of the Commission show that Mer’s Business Center is not registered as a corporation or partnership. However, Mer’s Business Center has been issued a Certificate of Business Name Registration on 21 December 2020 by the Department of Trade and Industry under the name of its owner, Reynaldo Abing Camingawan,” the advisory read.
“Nonetheless, Mer’s Business Center is not authorized to solicit investments from the public as it did not secure prior registration and/or license to solicit investments from the Commission as prescribed under Section 8 of the SRC [Securities Regulation Code].”
It may be recalled that Roger Camingawan was mentioned in two separate advisories issued by the Commission against persons propagating fake  news on Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. (Kapa).
In the advisory dated May 21, 2020, the SEC said Roger Camingawan was identified as one of the persons spreading false news that the cases filed by the SEC for violation of the SRC were already dismissed and said dismissal will render the Cease and Desist Order issued against Kapa as void.
“In an Advisory dated 09 December 2019, Roger Camingawan was also  mentioned as untruthfully claiming  that  Kapa  has been registered as a crowdfunding entity under the Rules Governing Crowdfunding,” the SEC said.
The agency reminded the public again “to learn from the lessons out of other similar investment schemes that have turned out to be scams—Kapa, ALMAMICO [Alabel-Maasim Small Scale Mining Cooperative]/ALAMCCO [Alabel-Maasim Credit Cooperative], and Rigen Marketing, among others.”
Photographs the SEC posted alongside its communication dispatch on Sunday showed the organization and the Camingawans issuing promotional materials and announcing new branches. One photograph shows a social media screen shot of Roger Camingawan, purportedly the branch manager of Kidapawan, North Cotabato handing out a sack of rice to a woman as her month’s worth of “gross production.”
“We are reminding the public to exercise caution when dealing with individuals or groups soliciting investments for and on their behalf,” the SEC said. “Please note that the SEC can not guarantee the recovery of your money.”

Author
Manuel Cayon

Manuel “Awi” T. Cayon has written about Mindanao for national newspapers for more than two decades, mostly on conflict reporting, and on the political front. His stint with TODAY newspaper in the ’90s started his business reporting in Mindanao, continuing to this day with the BusinessMirror. The multiawarded reporter received a Biotechnology journalism award in January 2019, his third. A fellow of the US International Visitors’ Program Leadership in 2007 on conflict resolution and alternative dispute resolution, Manuel attended college at the Mindanao State University and the Ateneo de Davao University.

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3 Penny Stocks For You May Watch List
With the stock market ripping to record levels, traders continue seeking new opportunities. Penny stocks have become one of these niches identified for their uncapped potential. This year alone, there’ve been countless names that rally from levels under $1 to prices that stretch beyond $10 or more.
If you’re new to this volatile world of cheap stocks, however, you may be wondering about a few things. First, what are penny stocks? According to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s definition of penny stocks, these are shares of companies that trade for less than $5. Of course, the original thought is that we’re talking about “penny” stocks, so they should be trading for less than $1. At the end of the day, however you define them, the goal is the same. Make money and repeat the process.
Are Penny Stocks Worth The Risk?
If you’re ready to dive in and start looking for penny stocks to buy, make sure, you do one last thing. Since these are so volatile and carry a much higher risk than your average Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) or Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), you should understand what that means for your personal trading style. In most cases, penny stocks tend to jump quickly and fall just as fast. It’s the thing that becomes a big attraction as well as a big deterrent in the market. Those who can take advantage of the big swings without getting greedy usually become the ones who succeed the most.
[Read More] 4 Meme Penny Stocks To Watch As DogeCoin Rises
Aside from the general volatility risk in the market, some stocks like OTC penny stocks have other factors that may or may not be in play. One of them is manipulation. If you’re watching things like Dogecoin, you’ve seen how manipulated things can get when the hype starts driving the reason people are buying something.
Similarly, OTC penny stocks are well-known for being the targets of “pumpy” tactics. So if you’re looking at these or penny stocks, in general, understand that there are plenty of risks involved. If you aren’t well-equipped to handle it, trading cheap stocks could be a bit difficult until you learn how to trade.
Best Penny Stocks For May 2021?
If you’ve got a good understanding of trading and risk, then penny stocks may be a good option for you. With this in mind, we’ll take a look at a few trending stocks under $5 right now that could be interesting to watch in May 2021.

Sesen Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: SESN)
trivago N.V. (NASDAQ: TRVG)
ALFI Inc. (NASDAQ: ALF)

Penny Stocks To Watch #1: Sesen Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: SESN)
One of the trends that have popped up in the stock market this year is a strong focus on healthcare and biotechnology. In fact, if you look at some of the hottest sectors, in general, you don’t need to look too far to see what I’m talking about. While the broader markets, including the S&P and Dow, reached fresh all-time highs, the Healthcare sector also experienced a blowout day. Take, for instance, the S&P Healthcare ETF (NYSE: XLV). It surged to fresh all-time highs, which could warrant having a closer look at some related companies.
Sesen Bio focuses on cancer treatments. The company’s Vicineum platform has been the main point of focus most recently. It’s designed to treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. There’s already been a Marketing Authorization Application submitted to the European Medicines Agency.
Furthermore, its partner, Qilu Pharmaceutical, obtained an Investigational New Drug Application in China for the treatment. This will allow the company to progress to the next step of conducting clinical trials and assess the efficacy of Vicineum in patients with this form of bladder cancer.
What To Watch With SESN Stock
This month could be an important month for the company, in general. In fact, this week could be interesting. The reason being, Sesen delivers Q1 earnings on Monday. There will also be a business update given. Since Sesen is still a clinical-stage company, the market will likely place more of a focus on what guidance is given on the treatment pipeline. Depending on what’s said, it will be interesting to see how the market responds.
[Read More] 4 Hot Reddit Penny Stocks With Higher Than Average Volume
Also, keep in mind that Sesen just announced more progress ahead of a potential commercial launch of Vicineum pending US approval in August. The company added to its leadership team and engaged Syneoas Health for field sales in the U.S. This will also likely be a topic that the market could focus on.

trivago N.V. (NASDAQ: TRVG)
One of the other trends in the stock market this year is “reopening stocks” or “epicenter stocks.” The simple definition for these centers around companies hit hardest by the pandemic shut-downs last year. Upon reopening and vaccine distribution, analysts like Tom Lee of Fundstrat have expressed that these beaten-down names could be the ones to flourish when economies reopen. These include everything from energy stocks to travel & leisure stocks.
In this case, Trivago could find itself on that list of reopening stocks to watch. If you aren’t familiar with the company, it manages its namesake website helping users book hotels. The famous catchphrase, “Hotel, Trivago,” became immediately popular once mainstream outlets began serving their ads.
What To Watch With TRVG Stock
Despite some of the topsy-turvy actions in the travel and leisure industry, TRVG stock, along with many others, have recently caught a strong move in the market. Not only is TRVG up for the month, but year-to-date shares have also now climbed 58% at Friday’s close. The stock also briefly reached highs of $5.88 when the social media community made it one of the official Reddit penny stocks in January.
Needless to say, industry fundamentals and company appeal have resulted in a slew of new analyst updates. DA Davidson, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley have all boosted their price targets on the penny stock in the last week.

ALFI Inc. (NASDAQ: ALF)
You also can’t forget the rampant momentum fueling the IPO market this year. We’ve seen many companies going public via direct offering, traditional IPO, and SPAC in 2021. The resulting trends have shown promise for many early investors. I should also mention that if you’re new to stocks, in general, IPOs present another layer of risk.
[Read More] Best Penny Stocks To Buy Under $1 On Robinhood Right Now?
Early-stage investors usually have held shares for quite some time before the initial public offering. In that case, not all IPOs result in big moves in the market. Take, for instance, the Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) IPO. On day 1 of the stock’s public debut, shares rallied strongly after opening up considerably higher than where they were initially indicated. Since then, COIN stock has done nothing but slide lower.
On the flip side, you’ve also got plenty of other IPO stocks to watch that experienced much different moves in the stock market in 2021. ALFI Inc. is one of them. The company recently went public this month. It raised $15.5 million through its IPO, and since going public, shares have climbed as high as much as 49%. There was a bit of a pullback late last week, but aftermarket trading on Friday could be something to take notice of.
What To Watch With ALF Stock
Shares of ALF stock shot up to $4.68 after the close on May 7th. This came on the same day ALFI announced new senior leadership for the company.
“We have clear revenue strategy for 2021, and we are honored to welcome Ron to our senior executive leadership,” said Paul Pereira, CEO of Alfi. “Ron’s passion for creating and driving a high-performance sales culture together with his long history in the global Digital Out-of-Home (“DOOH”) and Out-of-Home (“OOH”) advertising market, and deep understanding of our company, products and customers, makes him the ideal executive to drive revenue growth for the Company.”
ALFI focuses on machine learning technology allowing content publishers and brands to deliver targeted interactive ads to end-users.

Final Thoughts On Penny Stocks
All-in-all, penny stocks can be a great way to leverage smaller amounts of capital to take advantage of bigger moves in the market. The vast majority of penny stocks don’t move hundreds of percentage points; that’s a given. But at the same time, is a “small” 20% or 30% move in a single day a bad thing? Considering the overall market has returned between 12% and 20% annually over the last half-century, these “small wins” from penny stocks don’t seem so small. Remember, risk and volatility can play a big role. So if you’re making your list of penny stocks to buy this week, keep that in mind.

COMTEX_386201213/2685/2021-05-09T11:16:47
Is there a problem with this press release? Contact the source provider Comtex at [email protected].

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Brooklyn, New York — Jeff Bezos sold $2.4bn of Amazon.com stock, bringing the amount he has unloaded this week to almost $5bn.
Bezos sold 739,032 shares under a pre-arranged trading plan, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, days after he disposed of an identical amount. He said this week in a filing that he plans to sell as many as 2-million shares.
The world’s richest person continues to hold more than 10% of Amazon, the primary source of his $192.1bn fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In the 15 years after Amazon went public in 1997, Bezos sold about a fifth of the online retailer for roughly $2bn. The value of his stake has grown to such an extent in recent years that he can now sell relatively small amounts for billions of dollars. in 2020 he disposed of stock worth more than $10bn.
Amazon rallied 76% in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic encouraged people to use online shopping. The stock is up 1.1% this year.
The Amazon founder has used equity sales to fund rocket company Blue Origin, while he’s committed $10bn to the “Bezos Earth Fund” to help counter the effects of climate change.
Bezos is also due to take delivery of a superyacht being built in the Netherlands that will be 127m long, span several decks and sport three enormous masts.
The biggest hit to Bezos’s wealth came after his divorce from MacKenzie Scott, who received a 4% stake in Amazon as part of the split. 
Bloomberg News. For more articles like this please visit Bloomberg.

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Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) intends to sell its wellness infrastructure portfolio in 2021, CEO Mark Ganzi confirmed Thursday. The real estate in the portfolio is valued at $3.3 billion and includes 118 senior housing properties and 83 skilled nursing facilities, in addition to medical office and hospital assets.
In March 2021, Bloomerg reported that Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) — which owns independent living giant Holiday Retirement — is one potential buyer.
Boca Raton, Florida-based Colony has $46 billion in assets under management overall, and has been selling off its real estate portfolios as part of a push toward digital infrastructure.

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But, the company is not in any rush to dispose of its health care assets, particularly considering the portfolio’s recent performance. Among its largest senior housing operating partners are Senior Lifestyle Corp. and Frontier Management. Millers, Wellington Healthcare, Citadel Care Centers and Consulate are among its primary skilled nursing operators.
“The combination of government support and getting our health care facilities fully vaccinated and getting new move-ins in this quarter, we’ve seen a significant rebound in performance,” Ganzi said during the company’s Q1 2021 earnings call. “So we’re being very thoughtful about how we enter into strategic discussions on that asset.”
Despite Ganzi’s bullishness, occupancy in Colony’s senior housing and skilled nursing communities did decline in the first quarter of the year, according to the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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Occupancy in the 53 senior housing operating assets fell to 69.4%, compared to 72.8% the prior quarter, and occupancy in the 65 triple-net lease senior housing properties fell to 70.8%, from 76.1% the prior quarter. Skilled nursing occupancy came in at 68.2% for the first quarter of 2021, versus 70.5% in Q4 2020.
From a financial standpoint, net operating income in the senior housing operating portfolio was down 38.5% year-over-year in the first quarter on a same-store basis, but NOI was up 7.9% for the senior housing triple-net assets and 0.9% for the skilled nursing assets.
Other publicly traded senior housing and care owners also reported occupancy declines to start 2021, but have noted significant positive momentum as vaccinations have been completed.

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Colony’s leaders “like what we see so far in the second quarter,” Ganzi said, noting also that “we’re going to continue to see improving metrics across every facet of that business.”
Still, the portfolio is in the midst of a strategic review and interest from potential buyers has been “robust.”
“We continue to have an intention of monetizing that asset this year. That is the intention,” Ganzi said. “So, all the work and effort that we are putting in place right now from an operations perspective and from a strategic review perspective give us confidence that we’ll be able to get that done.

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SEC PHOTO RELEASE
THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Davao office has issued a public warning against putting money into or acting as coordinator for MER’S Business Center, which does not have a permit for investment operations.
In an advisory issued over the weekend, the agency said MER’S is not registered as a corporation or partnership, much less holds a license to sell securities.
“An investment scheme is illegal when entities or individuals are taking in investments from the public without a secondary license or license to sell securities from the Commission,” it said.
MER’S, headed by Reynaldo and Roger Abing Camingawan, has its head office in General Santos City and has been verified to have set up branches in the different parts of Davao Region.
The SEC-Davao noted that it has previously flagged Roger Abing Camingawan for spreading “false news” about Kapa-Community Ministry International (KAPA), which the agency’s head office has labeled as possibly “the largest investment scam in the Philippines in recent years.”
“Roger Camingawan was identified as one of the persons spreading false news that the cases filed by the SEC for violation of the Securities Regulation Code were already dismissed… (he) was also mentioned as untruthfully claiming that KAPA has been registered as a crowdfunding entity under the Rules Governing Crowdfunding,” the Davao office said.
It further warned that “those who invite or recruit other people to join or invest in this venture or offer investment contracts or securities to the public may be held criminally liable or accordingly sanctioned or penalized” under existing laws. — Marifi S.

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SOURCE / ECONOMY
US crippling its financial dominance by elbowing out Chinese telcos: experts
Chinese telcos to delist from NYSE, a loss for US capital market

By

Global Times reporter based in Shanghai, covering financial news and breaking news related to large corps surrounding Shanghai.

Xie Jun
Published: May 09, 2021 07:34 PM

A China Mobile employee adjusts and tests 5G base station equipment at Tongling Railway Station in East China’s Anhui Province on April 27. Photo: cnsphoto
Three Chinese telecom giants have announced that they expect their American depositary receipts (ADRs) to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) soon, reflecting a brewing trend of US segregation of US-listed Chinese companies, which experts said will erode the US’ dominant role in the global capital market in the long run. In separate filings by China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom on Friday, the companies said that they expected the NYSE to apply to the US Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to delist their ADRs. The companies said that the delisting will be effective 10 days after the application is submitted. The delisting is in line with an executive order signed by former US President Donald Trump in November 2020, barring Americans from investing in Chinese companies that Washington accused of having ties to Chinese military and security services. The three Chinese telecom carriers had earlier asked the NYSE to reconsider the delisting decision. Fu Liang, an independent telecom analyst in Beijing, said that for the three telecom giants, remaining on the US market would be of little value for their businesses, considering that their trading volumes are very small and there have been no refinancings in about a decade. Likewise, delisting of the three companies would not have too much direct impact on the NYSE itself. However, what’s more important is that the removal reflects an increasingly tough environment in the US capital markets for Chinese companies, which would make Chinese companies more and more reluctant to list on US stock markets – that would cripple the US capital markets’ competence, Fu told the Global Times on Sunday.”The US is weakening its role as the world’s financial leader, as its segregation of rising Chinese tech giants would cause capital to flow away from it to some of its competitors that are willing to embrace those companies,” said Fu. Among the three companies, China Mobile has not yet disclosed whether it is planning to list on the Chinese A-share markets. China Telecom said recently that it has applied to list its shares in Shanghai, while China Unicom shares are already trading in Shanghai. All of the three companies are currently listed in Hong Kong. According to Fu, as China Mobile has sufficient cash flow, it is not certain whether the company is in a rush to get listed on mainland stock exchanges, but it may push its subsidiaries like Migu to go public to promote their brand image and market presence.But he said that China Telecom’s listing might bring some fluctuation to the stock price of its peer China Unicom, as investors would refer to China’s Telecom’s share price when they make trading decisions related to China Unicom, and some capital might be drawn away from the latter. The share price of China Mobile fell 0.1 percent to HK$50 ($6.44) on Friday. Shares of China Telecom rose 2.14 percent, while shares of China Unicorn fell 0.22 percent.Fu said the companies’ share prices would not be too volatile after the delisting.”I don’t see any reason why investors would dump their shares as their general situation has not changed. If there is such a trend, the companies will likely repurchase their shares to stabilize the price,” Fu said, adding that their businesses, like in the 5G field, would not be affected as the capital involved in the delisting is limited.

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BCI, as the provincial pension is known, disclosed the trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Musk has previously drawn criticism for moves like publicly mocking the US Securities and Exchange Commission and calling a cave diver who …

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When Bernie Madoff died in April, at 82, he was serving a 150-year sentence. His fraud topped $17.5bn. The investors who trusted him were many and varied. Many went bankrupt, many lost their homes, some were driven to suicide. At sentencing, judge Denny Chin called Madoff’s crimes “extraordinarily evil”. He was not mourned. One investor announced: “Death is too good for him.”Madoff trafficked in carnage.Mark Madoff, his oldest son, killed himself.“Bernie,” he wrote, “now you know how you have destroyed the lives of your sons by your life of deceit.”Andrew Madoff, the youngest son, died of cancer.Mark’s suicide note concluded: “Fuck you.”Now, Madoff Talks chronicles how the former head of the Nasdaq exchange pulled off his monumental crime.Paperwork didn’t make sense. Returns were too good to be true. Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities (BLMIS) was a Ponzi scheme. But regulators ignored warnings. BLMIS produced 10% annually. If the stock market had not crashed in 2008, Madoff’s crimes would probably have gone undiscovered. His company went bust in 2001 but investors remained in the dark.Time, however, catches up with most things.This is also a New York story, a rise-and-fall drenched in ethnicity and classIn 2011, Eugene Soltes, a professor at Harvard Business School, conducted a series of brief interviews with Madoff. They later formed the core of a case study, a portion of which was released in audio. But Jim Campbell has a unique vantage point. A freelance finance reporter, he was Madoff’s pen pal for a decade.Campbell’s first book is the product of hundreds of jailhouse emails and letters, interviews with Ruth Madoff, his widow, and those who worked with him. It promises to be the definitive Madoff biography.Being near Madoff didn’t mean being close. He shared the truth as he saw it or as he wanted it remembered. Back in the day, Ruth Madoff was spending $57,000 a month. Right before things went belly up, she withdrew $10m from a brokerage account. Now, she needs approval from the Madoff Recovery Trust to shell out more than $100. Campbell concludes she was probably in the dark.This is also a New York story, a rise-and-fall drenched in ethnicity and class. Madoff saw himself as a modern-day Shylock, persecuted more than prosecuted.He attributed his plight to investor pressures generated by his “big four”: Stanley Chais, Norman Levy, Jeffry Picower and Carl Shapiro. Picower was a lawyer and accountant; Levy, chairman of a real estate company; Shapiro, a player in the textile industry; Chase, a manufacturer of children’s clothing.They were drawn to Madoff by a tax avoidance strategy he deemed legal. It was downhill from there. Campbell traces the genesis of his scheme to 1992. Madoff felt compelled to deliver an ample return but grew to loathe Picower, the biggest player. His greed “knew no limits”, in Campbell’s telling.Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Frank DiPascali – a convicted Madoff lieutenant, now dead – makes clear Madoff picked people for his operation because of what they lacked. No degrees from Harvard and Wharton, relative lack of financial sophistication and lifestyles that grew dependent on Madoff.Campbell echoes that assessment. Eleanor Squillari, Madoff’s secretary of 25 years, emerges a hero. Squillari was siloed away from Madoff’s crimes – despite sitting just feet away. After Madoff’s fall, she mounted a crusade to put things right.“She made it her mission, to this day, to do whatever it took to help the victims and hold her revered former boss accountable,” Campbell writes.Madoff Talks explains how “feeder funds”, ostensibly reputable hedge funds, served as conduits for money which went to BLMIS. Instead of conducting due diligence those funds turned “willfully blind”, according to Harry Markopolos, a forensic accountant and an early and ignored whistleblower.Walter Noel’s Fairfield Greenwich Group was the largest domestic feeder. One former FGC banker, Charles Murphy, leaped to his death in 2017. He invested with Madoff.Sonja Kohn’s Bank Medici, in Austria, was the largest international feeder. Squillari claims to have uncovered under-the-table payments to Kohn. Like Noel, she was never criminally charged.In January 2009, Kohn denied wrongdoing and claimed to have been deceived. In 2017, the Dublin-based Thema International Fund, an investment conduit linked to Kohn’s Medici Bank, agreed to pay $687m to defrauded investors. Noel also said Madoff fooled him. Cumulatively, he and his funds have paid hundreds of millions in settlements and fines.Squillari minces no words about J Ezra Merkin, his Gabriel Capital fund and its two Madoff-bound feeder funds, Ascot Fund Ltd and Ascot Partners.“I hated him”, she says. “He was a big fat man with no personality … He screwed everybody because they trusted him.”Blood can be thicker than water. In a New York Times op-ed, the writer Daphne Merkin, Ezra’s sister, attempted to shift blame: “What is lost amid the fury of some of those who handed their money over … is that theirs was a voluntary, nay, eager association.”She added: “No one was holding a gun to anyone’s head, saying sign up with Mr Madoff or else.” For her, victims and casualties were not the same.In a final chapter titled Never Again, Campbell offers his prescription for avoiding another Madoff-like disaster. He recommends better due diligence and greater caution – which are both highly unlikely in the absence of legal sanctions or a transformation of human nature.More practically, he calls for structural changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission, greater investor protection by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and criminalization of the wilful failure of feeder funds to conduct due diligence.When carrots fail, sticks may work. One thing is certain, Madoff set a new bar and others will follow. A quick look at the Department of Justice website tells us fraud is never-ending. The past six months have seen cases against about as many Ponzi-schemes. A better mousetrap waits to be built. An even bigger payday waits to be secured.

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Billionaires, celebrities and athletes can’t get enough of the crypto craze. 
Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks digital currencies are here to stay. So does investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
They’re not alone. Rapper Snoop Dogg jumped on the Dogecoin bandwagon along with Kiss singer Gene Simmons and restaurateur Guy Fieri after the meme-inspired cryptocurrency surged a whopping 11,000% this year.
Athletes are also flocking to bigger cryptos like bitcoin and ether following a record-breaking rally. Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 NFL draft pick in 2021, partnered with a global cryptocurrency investment app called Blockfolio and plans to place his signing bonus into an account with the company.

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But it’s no longer just enthusiasts and public figures who are dabbling with digital coins. 
Amateurs like Earl S. Bell of Brooklyn, New York, are jumping in. He says he’s been an investor for a decade and started to put his money in different cryptocurrencies about a year ago.
“I saw crypto as freedom. In the COVID era, I wasn’t able to get enough work,” says Bell, an architect by trade. “My future plans are to come out with my own coin.”
Bell says his plan would include creating bank-like safes for cryptocurrency investors to store their crypto wallets.
So with all the hype around cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, bitcoin and ether, should you jump in on the mania, too? It depends on how much you can tolerate extreme volatility in your portfolio. 

Cryptocurrencies are digital currency created and exchanged over a decentralized computer network where transactions are secured and verified through coding.
Bitcoin, which launched in 2009, is the original and the world’s most popular crypto. It was designed as an alternative to government money and is based on blockchain technology, which acts as a public ledger of transactions.
Bitcoin’s value depends on investors’ confidence in it because there is no central authority governing supply. It has mainly been used for speculation by traders rather than for payments.

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Earl S. Bell, amateur cryptocurrency investor

I saw crypto as freedom. In the COVID era, I wasn’t able to get enough work. My future plans are to come out with my own coin, and I’m in the process of creating a hardware crypto wallet.

Prices for cryptocurrencies are based on supply and demand. That means the rate at which a cryptocurrency can be exchanged for another currency can fluctuate vastly since the design of many cryptocurrencies ensures a high degree of scarcity. 
Bitcoin bulls have called it a “store of value” – which has historically been reserved for safe-haven investments like gold – and argue that it’s a good investment to hedge against inflation.
That’s because there’s not an unlimited supply of bitcoin. In fact, there are only 21 million bitcoins that can be mined, and about 18 million have been mined so far. Bitcoin mining is the process that creates cryptocurrency. It is resource-intensive in an effort to control the number of bitcoins in circulation. 

Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 NFL draft pick in 2021, partnered with a global cryptocurrency investment app called Blockfolio and plans to place his signing bonus into an account with the company.

Enthusiasm around Bitcoin spurred other digital tokens.
Ethereum, which launched in 2015, is a blockchain-based software platform that is primarily used to support ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value at more than $400 billion. It eclipsed $3,900 on Saturday to touch another all-time high, rising more than 400% in 2021.
Ether supply, however, isn’t capped and new tokens are created through a similar mining process as bitcoin. 

A screengrab from the dogecoin.com website. One of the Dogecoin founders told a cryptocurrency news site that the token’s rise makes him worry about market excess.dogecoin.com

The “memecoin” Dogecoin was created in 2013 as a joke poking fun at the surge in other digital coins. Dogecoin was inspired by the popular Doge meme, which is an image of a Shiba Inu dog staring sideways at the camera with raised eyebrows.
The latest surge has pushed Dogecoin’s market capitalization to $70 billion, which means it’s valued more highly than Moderna, Ford and Twitter. In 2021, it has surged from less than half a penny to more than 50 cents.
It’s also worth more than SpaceX, Musk’s privately held rocket company, which is valued at $74 billion, according to SEC filings.

Cryptocurrencies aren’t a currency supported by governments, and they aren’t a piece of a company, like a stock. But the factors that determine their underlying worth are unclear, experts say.  
For those who invest in a stock, the price of a share should be the present value or future profit that a company is going to generate, according to Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business

No one can tell you whether bitcoin priced at $50,000, $60,000, or $70,000 is too much or too little. So as a result, it takes on a life of its own. …People start to believe that’s what it should be and then it crashes with no clear guidance on where it should stop.

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, it’s really up in the air, he says.
“No one can tell you whether bitcoin priced at $50,000, $60,000, or $70,000 is too much or too little,” says Goldstein. “So as a result, it takes on a life of its own. … People start to believe that’s what it should be and then it crashes with no clear guidance on where it should stop.”

Cuban is one of the core investors on NBC’s reality show “Shark Tank.” He told USA TODAY he’s a big believer and investor in cryptocurrency.
Cuban says he first started investing in cryptocurrencies in 2017 and added to his investments last year and this year. He declined to say how much he has invested, except that it’s “not enough.”

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Mark Cuban

If more places take Doge and more people spend it, then those 5 billion coins annually will be consumed and that may increase the value of Doge.

He likes Dogecoin because there’s a limit to it with annual inflation of 5 billion coins.
“So, if more places take Doge and more people spend it, then those 5 billion coins annually will be consumed and that may increase the value of Doge,” Cuban says.
As for cryptocurrency becoming mainstream, Cuban says that can mean a lot of different things.
“I think the first impact of crypto, particularly Ethereum, will be for business applications,” Cuban says.

First-time investors should proceed with caution. Piling all of your nest egg into something as volatile as cryptocurrencies poses big risks to your retirement, experts say. Wealth managers and finance experts have long been skeptical of these speculative investments for amateur investors due to their extreme swings. 
Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business

The risks are huge. Crypto prices are a roller coaster. Certainly, people who put money in bitcoin a few years ago could make a huge return. But there were points in between where it saw big drops.

“The risks are huge. Crypto prices are a roller coaster,” says Goldstein. “Certainly, people who put money in bitcoin a few years ago could make a huge return. But there were points in between where it saw big drops.”
In 2013, bitcoin began trading around $13 and spiked to more than $1,000 by December. In late 2017, the digital token surged to nearly $20,000, before crashing to almost $3,000 the following year before its dizzying rise to above $64,000 last month.
“If you have a small amount of money that you’re trying to save and have plans for what to use it for, this isn’t something you should invest in,” Goldstein adds. “This is for people who want to take on risk and speculate.”

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Leeor Shimron, vice president of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors

These types of meme coins have more power in the pandemic because more people are plugged into social media on Twitter or TikTok. But it’s not healthy or sustainable for smaller coins like dogecoin that don’t necessarily have fundamental value.

Dogecoin has seen similar booms before where it reached all-time highs in 2017, but it was short-lived.
“I don’t think this time is any different,” says Leeor Shimron, vice president of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors.
Late Saturday, dogecoin slumped more than 20% during Musk’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance as host. It was unclear what drove the selloff. But analysts say it was likely a “buy the rumor, sell the news” strategy, an old market adage based on the belief that an asset may rise in anticipation of rumors, then stagnate or fall when investors take profits following the event.
“These types of meme coins have more power in the pandemic because more people are plugged into social media on Twitter or TikTok,” adds Shimron, who is bullish on larger coins like bitcoin and ether. “But it’s not healthy or sustainable for smaller coins like Dogecoin that don’t necessarily have fundamental value.”
But that hasn’t stopped non-professional investors from throwing themselves into the mix.
Like other investments, such as SPACs or special purpose acquisition companies, cryptocurrency has a mass following on social media sites.

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Abdullah Taimur, cryptocurrency investor

If you’re a beginner, just don’t invest right away. Join these (online) crypto groups. You really get to know about the market, and you also learn from other people’s experience.

Facebook, for example, is where Abdullah Taimur of Pakistan trades information with other cryptocurrency investors in the United States and elsewhere.
He says he began investing in at least six cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, SafeMoon and WINk, the past few months. Taimur adds he doesn’t mind the volatility in the crypto markets. He has advice for others looking to jump in:
“If you’re a beginner, just don’t invest right away,” he says. “Join these (online) crypto groups. You really get to know about the market, and you also learn from other people’s experience.”
Most importantly, he says, never sell at a loss or jump on a “flying rocket.”

A number of factors are driving the crypto craze in prices.
With the stock market at record highs, interest rates at historic lows and real estate prices strengthening, investors are looking for more ways to generate returns and diversify their portfolios, according to Goldstein.
Investment banks like Morgan Stanley and rival Goldman Sachs have offered some of their wealthiest clients access to Bitcoin funds.
The debut of Coinbase —  a cryptocurrency exchange — as a publicly traded company last month attracted both day traders and new amateur investors and helped spur the latest rally in cryptocurrencies, pushing virtual tokens like Dogecoin, bitcoin and ether to record highs. The exchange was founded as a simpler way to trade digital coins.
The surge in popularity of “memecoins” like Dogecoin follows a recent boom in retail trading during the coronavirus pandemic as more people worked online, spurring interest in “meme stocks” like GameStop.

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Gary Gensler, the new sheriff on Wall Street, has set some ambitious plans for cracking down on stock-trading shenanigans — but the sheriff will need some deputies if he wants to get the job done.
As the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gensler told lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday he wants to do something about the “gamification” of trading by small investors. He wants to end abuses committed by short sellers who push stocks lower. He will try to force traders who use complex derivatives to disclose their positions before risking billion-dollar losses. He also wants to protect people from being snookered into buying risky cryptocurrencies.
In fact, if you listened to Genlser closely during his testimony, there’s almost no part of the burgeoning financial business that he doesn’t want to control. What he didn’t tell Congress is that for all his regulatory bluster, he hasn’t hired enough people around him to even begin to carry out his mission.
As this column goes to press, Gensler still has not named his picks to run some of the most important parts of the SEC. Acting holdovers from the Trump administration continue to serve as the commission’s general counsel, head of trading and markets, corporate finance — and the all-important enforcement-division chief whose job it is to pursue Wall Street crooks.
SEC watchers say they can’t recall an administration past the 100-day mark that didn’t have all those positions filled. Even worse, dig deeper into the Biden administration and you will find that the SEC isn’t the only agency that’s operating nearly rudderless. The Biden White House has yet to appoint a new antitrust chief to run the Justice Department — a key slot that will determine the future size and scope of technology companies and what corporate mergers get approved. 
There is no chair for the Federal Communications Commission to determine if the administration brings back so-called net neutrality, the concept ditched under Trump but embraced by Biden and progressives because it forces Internet providers to treat all content equally regardless of existing business relationships.
Likewise, there is no Federal Trade Commission chair and so no new consumer-protection agenda. If you want to know why the future of TikTok remains in limbo after nearly a year of controversy, it’s because key slots in the Treasury and State departments remain unfilled. Plus, it’s unclear if a Trump appointee will remain as assistant attorney general for national security. As a result, the administration still hasn’t ruled if the Chinese-owned short-video app is still a threat to national security and must be banned in the US.
President Joe Biden’s administration still hasn’t ruled if the Chinese-owned TikTok app should be banned for being a threat to national security. AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File
Of course, you can make the case that a less activist SEC, FTC and DOJ might be a good thing — less regulation is usually good for business. But you can also make the case that Biden’s promises to make the world safer for investors and consumers is being thwarted by bureaucratic sclerosis, and he’s getting a pass from the mainstream media that continue to peddle the fiction that the Biden White House is a well-oiled machine about to change America, FDR-style, as opposed to the allegedly feckless Trumpers.
“It’s so weird that none of these positions are filled,” said one veteran white-collar attorney who deals with the SEC. “I can’t remember a time when every major office and division at the SEC has been headed by an acting, and none of these positions require Senate approval.”
Another long-time DC-based attorney who represents tech companies tells me his business is at a standstill because of the vacancies at FCC, FTC and the DOJ’s antitrust-division chief. “You just can’t get anything done at these ­places because there’s no Biden people in charge of implementing an agenda,” he said.

The logjam in appointments appears to be a function of two issues. The first is the full-on obsession by the Biden White House to spend as much money as quickly as possible on COVID relief, infrastructure and anything else the people there can think of, I am told. By forcing so much of the bureaucratic attention on spending ­(albeit much of it of dubious necessity), the White House has crowded out other important issues.
That means, among other unfinished business, a border crisis that never seems to end because there’s no one available to fix the mess.
The other thing handcuffing appointments is that the vetting goes beyond normal national-security checks and qualifications such as work experience. For Team Biden, all the right boxes need to be checked before someone can make it through the process.
Those boxes have a high priority for diversity and other soft issues near and dear to the heart of the business-hating progressive caucus in Congress led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, AOC and a handful of others with the loudest voices in the Democratic Party.
For proof, see the short-lived tenure of Alex Oh as SEC enforcement chief. Oh appeared to check all those right boxes — she was a gifted lawyer and a woman of color. But as I pointed out last week, she was forced to leave the job just days after taking it when a left-wing advocacy group exposed her legal work for Big Oil.
Again, as a free-market type, I’m seeing the upside of the Biden bureaucracy that can’t get off the ground and do stuff that will make markets less efficient. But don’t tell me these guys have their acts together. If they did, we still wouldn’t be discussing a TikTok ban.

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ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan’s (SECP) Innovation Office, in collaboration with the National Incubation Center (NIC), held another webinar titled “An Overview of Growth Enterprise Board”, a statement said on Saturday.

The session was focused on providing awareness regarding the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), which serves as a second-tier board at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the listing and trading of equity securities, it added.
As an alternative to the main board of PSX, GEM allows both SMEs and large-cap companies to raise equity capital from eligible investors and provides a platform for companies to avail of low-cost financing.
The participants were provided a comprehensive overview of the regulatory regime of GEM Board, which aims at facilitating small and medium-sized companies in capital formation and promote ease of doing business in the country.

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