Chinese owned electronics and media company, StarTimes, has refuted reports that it is subject to a winding-up court order, following a petition filed in a Hong Kong court against the company by a sports and entertainment network, beIN Media Group.

According to a report in February by Sports market intelligence platform, GlobalData, StarTimes signed a deal in 2018 with beIN Media Group which holds international Ligue 1 rights from 2018-19 to 2023-24 to broadcast English- and local-language Ligue 1 in sub-Saharan Africa.

The pay-TV operator is reported to now owe beIN $11m, including interest.

The Public Relations Manager, StarTimes Nigeria, Lazarus Ibeabuchi, on Monday, in a statement titled ‘No Wind-up Court Order on StarTimes’, said the court proceeding was ongoing and that the eventual decision of the Hong Kong court would not impact the company’s operations in Nigeria.

It read, “Following articles published by some Nigerian media over an alleged dispute between StarTimes and beIN Media Group, StarTimes wants to clarify the following points:

“StarTimes has not been subjected to any court order, in Nigeria or anywhere else, in relation to a dispute with beIN Media Group.

“Though in Hong Kong, a legal proceeding is ongoing to resolve the differences between both aggrieved parties, it’s an ongoing court proceeding and not a court order. A court in Hong Kong has no jurisdiction over Nigeria.

“Whatever decision reached is binding on both parties in that country only, and would have no consequences on StarTimes’ operations in Nigeria.”

Ibeabuchi added that StarTimes had been in constant communication with beIN Media Group, saying it was confident that the two parties will resolve the issue in an amicable manner.

According to StarTimes, for several years, it has been the official broadcaster of premium sports events in Sub-Saharan Africa, including La Liga, Bundesliga and UEFA Europa football leagues, Spain’s Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España, England’s FA Cup and Italy’s Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana.

US Businessman and Entrepreneur, Elon Musk came back in grand style to retain the world’s richest man after he made $9.81 billion on Wednesday, February 24.

Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturing company, Tesla surged back to $190 billion, after their shares recorded impressive gains of 6.18%, thereby putting the market value of Tesla at $712 billion coupled with the SpaceX he founded completing another funding round, pushing him atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the third time in 2021.

The gains pushed Musk past Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who is now worth $185 billion and had a few days ago reclaimed the title as the world’s richest person after Tesla shares plunged to record levels.

Tesla Inc stocks were on a record buying spree at Wednesday’s trading session, indicating that global investors are buying the dip following a four-day plunge that erased the world’s most valuable car company year-to-date gains.

Recent reports say SpaceX raised another $850 million this month from a group of leading institutional investors led by Sequoia Capital.

Such investment now puts SpaceX’s valuation at $74 billion, a 60% jump from August, and helped boost Musk’s net worth by about $11 billion, according to the index.

Tesla announced that the company will start accepting bitcoin as payment for its products in the nearby future as the company was trying to maximise returns on cash that is not being used in the day-to-day running of the company.

The move by billionaire Musk comes days after he added “#bitcoin” to his Twitter profile page,  another move that drove up the price.

Musk regularly talks up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, currencies he has endorsed.

In a stock market filing on Monday, February 8, Tesla said it “updated its investment policy” in January and now wanted to invest in “reserve assets” such as digital currencies, gold bullion or gold exchange-traded funds.

It said it had already bought $1.5bn of Bitcoin and could “acquire and hold digital assets” in the future.

“Moreover, we expect to begin accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis,” it said.

Musk announced last week that Bitcoin was “on the verge” of being more widely accepted among investors.

“I think we will see an acceleration of companies looking to allocate to Bitcoin now that Tesla has made the first move,” said Eric Turner, vice-president of market intelligence at cryptocurrency research firm Messari.

“One of the largest companies in the world now owns Bitcoin and by extension, every investor that owns Tesla, or even just an S&P 500 fund, has exposure to it as well.”

Despite the rise of bitcoin, some banks remain sceptical of digital currencies. 

Nigeria’s central bank last week banned the use of cryptocurrency while in October, the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey cautioned over Bitcoin’s use as a payment method.

“I have to be honest, it is hard to see that Bitcoin has what we tend to call intrinsic value,” he said. 

“It may have extrinsic value in the sense that people want it.”

The Former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu has criticized the Central Bank’s reason for banning cryptocurrency transactions in the country.

CBN had in a statement released on Sunday February 7, said it banned cryptocurrency transactions because they are largely speculative, anonymous, untraceable and are increasingly being used for money laundering, terrorism financing and other criminal activities. 

Reacting to this while appearing on an Arise TV program on Monday February 8, Moghalu stated that the excuse of “cryptocurrencies being used to perpetrate fraud” is not a serious argument. 

The former presidential candidate in the interview averred that every medium of exchange is subject to fraud and criminality. Moghalu said all the apex bank needed to do, was come up with a regulatory framework that restricts the use of cryptocurrency or subjects it to some surveillance.

He said; 

 “Cryptocurrencies have their risks and the central bank should be concerned. The argument that cryptocurrencies are used to perpetrate fraud is not a serious argument.

“People can use cryptocurrencies for wrong uses but every medium of exchange is subject to fraud and criminality.

“If you can manage the risk of fraud in paper money and other electronic platforms, why can’t you think of managing it with cryptocurrencies.

“I would have preferred some deep thinking about how to come up with a regulatory framework that restricts the use of cryptocurrency or subjects it to some surveillance that alerts the central bank if there are serious abuses that can affect financial system stability.

“CBN, especially in my time, did have a tendency for innovation ourselves, so I don’t see why there should be some sort of declaration of a third world war between the central bank and cryptocurrency.

“An outright ban on financial institutions from having accounts associated with cryptocurrency exchanges or cryptocurrency trading, seems to me,  it wasn’t the best approach to the problem”.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has explained why it banned cryptocurrency-related transactions in the country. 

CBN in a statement released on Sunday February 7, said cryptocurrencies have become well-suited for conducting many illegal activities including money laundering, terrorism financing, purchase of small arms and light weapons, and tax evasion.

It read; 

“The use of cryptocurrencies in Nigeria are a direct contravention of existing law. 

“It is also important to highlight that there is a critical difference between a Central Bank issued Digital Currency and cryptocurrencies. As the names imply, while Central Banks can issue Digital Currencies, cryptocurrencies are issued by unknown and unregulated entities. 

“The question that one may need to ask therefore is, why any entity would disguise its transactions if they were legal. 

“It is on the basis of this opacity that cryptocurrencies have become well-suited for conducting many illegal activities including money laundering, terrorism financing, purchase of small arms and light weapons, and tax evasion.

“Many banks and investors who place a high value on reputation have been turned off from cryptocurrencies because of the damaging effects of the widespread use of cryptocurrencies for illegal activities.

“The role of cryptocurrencies in the purchase of hard and illegal drugs on the darknet website called “Silk Road” is well known. They have also been recent reports that cryptocurrencies have been used to finance terror plots, further damaging its image as a legitimate means of exchange.

“More also, repeated and recent evidence now suggests that some cryptocurrencies have become more widely used as speculative assets rather than as means of payment, thus explaining the significant volatility and variability in their prices.”