Fintech
Mint Provides Additional Disclosure Regarding Debt Settlement
Toronto, Ontario–(Newsfile Corp. – September 24, 2021) – The Mint Corporation (TSXV: MIT) (“Mint” or the “Company“) announces that further to its press release dated September 7, 2021 and its management information circular dated August 31, 2021 (the “Circular“) it wishes to provide additional information pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101“), relating to the timeline, background, and summary of the negotiation process of the previously announced proposed debt settlement (the “Debt Settlement“) and debt settlement agreement (the “Agreement“) with Mobile Telecommunications Group LLC (“MTG“), Global Business Services for Multimedia (“GBS” and together with MTG, the “Creditors“), Mint Middle East LLC (“MME“), and Mint Gateway for Electronic Payment Services (“MGEPS“).
To provide the shareholders of the Company (“Shareholders“) additional time to consider and to vote upon the Debt Settlement, the Company will now hold its annual general and special shareholder meeting on October 7, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time) (the “Meeting“) (previously scheduled for, September 30, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time)). As such, the proxy cut-off time for the Meeting will now be October 5, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time). The Meeting will still be held at the Company’s office located at 33 Bay Street, Suite 1700, Toronto, Ontario, but to mitigate the risk and spread of the COVID-19 virus, Shareholders are strongly encouraged to attend the Meeting virtually through dialing 1-855-473-1059, Participant Code: 0091269#. A new management information circular will not be mailed out to Shareholders in connection with the new date of the Meeting. A copy of the Circular was mailed out to Shareholders on September 2, 2021 and can be found on the Company’s SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or on the Company’s website at www.themintcorp.com.
Timeline and Background of Debt Settlement
In June 2020, the board of directors of the Company (the “Board“) began discussing the urgency for the Company to clean-up its balance sheet, and in particular the Company’s debt owing to the Creditors in the amount of approximately CA$20,000,000 (the “Debt“), which was secured against all assets of the Company and coming due on December 2021. In addition, there was approximately CA$2,000,000 in an interest payment due to the Creditors annually.
On June 24, 2020, Vishy Karamadam, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, initiated discussions with regards to restructuring of the Debt with the Creditors based off the Company’s anticipated difficulties to meet the repayment obligations.
Over the next few months, Mr. Karamdam and the Creditors held various discussions regarding the benefits of restructuring the Debt, which eventually led to the Company proposing a settlement of the Debt through a payment of C$10,000,000 – which was rejected by the Creditors. Throughout the discussion, Mr. Karamdam kept independent member of the Board, Vikas Ranjan abreast of the progress in the talks with the Creditors; and kept the rest of the Board members periodically updated on the progress – with the exception of Firas Al Fraih, as he is a director of GBS, and as such, the Company implemented a Chinese wall with respect to Mr. Al Fraih’s involvement and he was not involved in any discussions or updates with respect to the talks from the Company’s side.
On December 15, 2020, the Creditors and the Company informally agreed on a framework for a settlement of the Debt being in the amount of US$10,000,000. In connection with this framework, the Company would receive from its United Arab of Emirates’ entities (the “UAE Entities“) a payment of US$11,000,000 (the “UAE Payment“) to settle a previous inter-company debt (the “Inter-Company Debt“) owed by the UAE Entities to the Company in the amount of C$40,000,000, an amount which was previously written-off by the Company. The Inter-Company Debt was initially provided through various advances to the UAE Entities beginning approximately 12 years ago to fund the working capital requirements of the UAE Entities’ business. However, such advances were written off in connection with audit requirements of the Company over the years, as further disclosed in the notes of the Company’s financial statements available on the Company’s SEDAR profile. The Company had previously discussed the settlement of the Inter-Company Debt with the UAE Entities, but such discussions were never able to materialize into any proposals due to numerous parties holding the Debt and the Inter-Company Debt.
Based off a draft letter of intent (“Letter of Intent“) sent by the Company to the Creditors on April 4, 2021, which captured the agreed upon figure of the settlement reached around December 15, 2020, the independent members of the Board supported the proposed terms of the Debt Settlement, and the parties formally entered into the Letter of Intent on May 5, 2021.
On July 9, 2021, based off the terms of the Letter of Intent, an initial draft of the Agreement was sent from the Company to the Creditors; the draft of the Agreement was largely based off the terms agreed to in the Letter of Intent. Nonetheless, one change in the terms between the Letter of Intent and the Agreement was the Company could settle the debt through a combination of consideration payable through a cash payment or assets-in-kind (rather than just a cash payment as stipulated in the Letter of Intent). This change was proposed by the Company to allow the Company to account for the type of consideration paid to it pursuant to the UAE Payment and to permit the Company to ensure suitable working capital flexibility to move forward upon completion of the Debt Settlement.
On September 2, 2021, the Agreement was reviewed and approved by the independent members of the Board. Mr. Al Fraih was excluded from Board discussions with respect to the approval of the Debt Settlement.
General Information About Payment Terms
With respect to the form of payment to be paid by the Company to the Creditors pursuant to the Debt Settlement Agreement (i.e., whether it will be a cash payment, assets-in-kind, or a combination of both thereof), the Company will make that decision based off its analysis of its working capital requirements for funding for the future growth of the business of the Company and will determine the apportionment based off both this framework and the type of consideration received from the UAE Payment. As of the date of this release, the Company has not determined the breakdown of the consideration that will be paid to the Creditors.
Any such assets to be paid in connection with the Debt Settlement may include real property located in the United Arab Emirates which may be received as part of the UAE Payment and will be subject to a valuation by an arm’s-length third-party appraisal firm agreed to by the respective parties in advance prior to being used as payment.
MI 61-101 Special Transaction
MTG is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GBS, which is a “control person” of the Company. Accordingly the Debt Settlement is a “related party transaction” within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 – Protection of Minority Holders in Special Transactions (“MI 61-101“). Pursuant to MI 61-101, the Company will seek approval of the majority of minority shareholders (“Minority Shareholder Approval“) of the Company with respect to the Debt Settlement at the Meeting.
A copy of the form of Debt Settlement Agreement was attached to the Circular.
ABOUT MINT
The Mint Corporation through its majority-owned subsidiaries (the “Mint Group“), is a globally certified payments company headquartered in Toronto, Canada with its primary business in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The Mint Group provides employers, employees and merchants with best-in-class financial services supported via payroll cards and the feature rich and linked Mint mobile application. Through its mobile enabled payments platform certified globally by MasterCard and UnionPay, Mint brings modern financial conveniences, at reasonable cost, to employers, merchants and consumers.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this news release constitute “forward-looking” statements. These statements relate to future events or future performance and, in certain cases, can be identified by the use of words such as “estimated” “intends”, “plans”, “expects”, “anticipates”, or variations of such words and phrases as statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “can”, will”, “might”, “shall”, “would” occur, or the negative forms of any of these words and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include the completion of the Debt Settlement pursuant to the terms of the Debt Settlement Agreement, the receipt of a cash payment in the amount of US$11,000,000, receipt of Minority Shareholder Approval pursuant to MI 61-101, and the use of the remaining funds for working capital purposes.
All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: failure of the parties to fulfill the conditions of the Debt Settlement Agreement, business or economic risks which may cause additional financial difficulties for the parties of the Debt Settlement Agreement, the inability for the Company to receive the necessary shareholder, regulatory, or third-party approvals, and general market risks and fluctuations. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Mint believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, Mint cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in Mint’s ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and Mint disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable securities laws.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
The Mint Corporation
Vishy Karamadam, Chief Executive Officer
416-729-1363
www.themintcorp.com
NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/97628
Modern brands stake on influencer marketing, with 76% of users making a purchase after seeing a product on social media.The cryptocurrency industry is no exception to this trend. However, promoting crypto products through influencer marketing can be particularly challenging. Crypto influencers pose a significant risk to a brand’s reputation and ROI due to rampant scams. Approximately 80% of channels provide fake statistics, including followers counts and engagement metrics. Additionally, this niche is characterized by high CPMs, which can increase the risk of financial loss for brands.
In this article Nadia Bubennnikova, Head of agency Famesters, will explore the most important things to look for in crypto channels to find the perfect match for influencer marketing collaborations.
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Comments
There are several levels related to this point.
LEVEL 1
Analyze approximately 10 of the channel’s latest videos, looking through the comments to ensure they are not purchased from dubious sources. For example, such comments as “Yes sir, great video!”; “Thanks!”; “Love you man!”; “Quality content”, and others most certainly are bot-generated and should be avoided.
Just to compare:
LEVEL 2
Don’t rush to conclude that you’ve discovered the perfect crypto channel just because you’ve come across some logical comments that align with the video’s topic. This may seem controversial, but it’s important to dive deeper. When you encounter a channel with logical comments, ensure that they are unique and not duplicated under the description box. Some creators are smarter than just buying comments from the first link that Google shows you when you search “buy YouTube comments”. They generate topics, provide multiple examples, or upload lists of examples, all produced by AI. You can either manually review the comments or use a script to parse all the YouTube comments into an Excel file. Then, add a formula to highlight any duplicates.
LEVEL 3
It is also a must to check the names of the profiles that leave the comments: most of the bot-generated comments are easy to track: they will all have the usernames made of random symbols and numbers, random first and last name combinations, “Habibi”, etc. No profile pictures on all comments is also a red flag.
LEVEL 4
Another important factor to consider when assessing comment authenticity is the posting date. If all the comments were posted on the same day, it’s likely that the traffic was purchased.
2. Average views number per video
This is indeed one of the key metrics to consider when selecting an influencer for collaboration, regardless of the product type. What specific factors should we focus on?
First & foremost: the views dynamics on the channel. The most desirable type of YouTube channel in terms of views is one that maintains stable viewership across all of its videos. This stability serves as proof of an active and loyal audience genuinely interested in the creator’s content, unlike channels where views vary significantly from one video to another.
Many unauthentic crypto channels not only buy YouTube comments but also invest in increasing video views to create the impression of stability. So, what exactly should we look at in terms of views? Firstly, calculate the average number of views based on the ten latest videos. Then, compare this figure to the views of the most recent videos posted within the past week. If you notice that these new videos have nearly the same number of views as those posted a month or two ago, it’s a clear red flag. Typically, a YouTube channel experiences lower views on new videos, with the number increasing organically each day as the audience engages with the content. If you see a video posted just three days ago already garnering 30k views, matching the total views of older videos, it’s a sign of fraudulent traffic purchased to create the illusion of view stability.
3. Influencer’s channel statistics
The primary statistics of interest are region and demographic split, and sometimes the device types of the viewers.
LEVEL 1
When reviewing the shared statistics, the first step is to request a video screencast instead of a simple screenshot. This is because it takes more time to organically edit a video than a screenshot, making it harder to manipulate the statistics. If the creator refuses, step two (if only screenshots are provided) is to download them and check the file’s properties on your computer. Look for details such as whether it was created with Adobe Photoshop or the color profile, typically Adobe RGB, to determine if the screenshot has been edited.
LEVEL 2
After confirming the authenticity of the stats screenshot, it’s crucial to analyze the data. For instance, if you’re examining a channel conducted in Spanish with all videos filmed in the same language, it would raise concerns to find a significant audience from countries like India or Turkey. This discrepancy, where the audience doesn’t align with regions known for speaking the language, is a red flag.
If we’re considering an English-language crypto channel, it typically suggests an international audience, as English’s global use for quality educational content on niche topics like crypto. However, certain considerations apply. For instance, if an English-speaking channel shows a significant percentage of Polish viewers (15% to 30%) without any mention of the Polish language, it could indicate fake followers and views. However, if the channel’s creator is Polish, occasionally posts videos in Polish alongside English, and receives Polish comments, it’s important not to rush to conclusions.
Example of statistics
Wrapping up
These are the main factors to consider when selecting an influencer to promote your crypto product. Once you’ve launched the campaign, there are also some markers to show which creators did bring the authentic traffic and which used some tools to create the illusion of an active and engaged audience. While this may seem obvious, it’s still worth mentioning. After the video is posted, allow 5-7 days for it to accumulate a basic number of views, then check performance metrics such as views, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), signups, and conversion rate (CR) from clicks to signups.
If you overlooked some red flags when selecting crypto channels for your launch, you might find the following outcomes: channels with high views numbers and high CTRs, demonstrating the real interest of the audience, yet with remarkably low conversion rates. In the worst-case scenario, you might witness thousands of clicks resulting in zero to just a few signups. While this might suggest technical issues in other industries, in crypto campaigns it indicates that the creator engaged in the campaign not only bought fake views and comments but also link clicks. And this happens more often than you may realize.
Summing up, choosing the right crypto creator to promote your product is indeed a tricky job that requires a lot of resources to be put into the search process.
Author
Nadia Bubennikova, Head of agency at Famesters
The BIS, along with seven leading central banks and a cohort of private financial firms, has embarked on an ambitious venture known as Project Agorá.
Named after the Greek word for “marketplace,” this initiative stands at the forefront of exploring the potential of tokenisation to significantly enhance the operational efficiency of the monetary system worldwide.
Central to this pioneering project are the Bank of France (on behalf of the Eurosystem), the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. These institutions have joined forces under the banner of Project Agorá, in partnership with an extensive assembly of private financial entities convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
At the heart of Project Agorá is the pursuit of integrating tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money within a unified, public-private programmable financial platform. By harnessing the advanced capabilities of smart contracts and programmability, the project aspires to unlock new transactional possibilities that were previously infeasible or impractical, thereby fostering novel opportunities that could benefit businesses and consumers alike.
The collaborative effort seeks to address and surmount a variety of structural inefficiencies that currently plague cross-border payments. These challenges include disparate legal, regulatory, and technical standards; varying operating hours and time zones; and the heightened complexity associated with conducting financial integrity checks (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification procedures), which are often redundantly executed across multiple stages of a single transaction due to the involvement of several intermediaries.
As a beacon of experimental and exploratory projects, the BIS Innovation Hub is committed to delivering public goods to the global central banking community through initiatives like Project Agorá. In line with this mission, the BIS will soon issue a call for expressions of interest from private financial institutions eager to contribute to this ground-breaking project. The IIF will facilitate the involvement of private sector participants, extending an invitation to regulated financial institutions representing each of the seven aforementioned currencies to partake in this transformative endeavour.
Source: fintech.globa
The post Central banks and the FinTech sector unite to change global payments space appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
TD Bank has inked a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as it looks to streamline the development and deployment of new products and services.
The deal will see the Canadian banking group integrate the vendor’s cloud services into a wider portion of its technology solutions portfolio, a move which TD expects will enable it “to respond quickly to changing customer expectations by rolling out new features, updates, or entirely new financial products at an accelerated pace”.
This marks an expansion of the already established relationship between TD Bank and Google Cloud after the group previously adopted the vendor’s Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for TD Securities Automated Trading (TDSAT), the Chicago-based subsidiary of its investment banking unit, TD Securities.
TDSAT uses GKE for process automation and quantitative modelling across fixed income markets, resulting in the development of a “data-driven research platform” capable of processing large research workloads in trading.
Dan Bosman, SVP and CIO of TD Securities, claims the infrastructure has so far supported TDSAT with “compute-intensive quantitative analysis” while expanding the subsidiary’s “trading volumes and portfolio size”.
TD’s new partnership with Google Cloud will see the group attempt to replicate the same level of success across its entire portfolio.
Source: fintechfutures.com
The post TD Bank inks multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud appeared first on HIPTHER Alerts.
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