Sunak's wife Akshata Murty decides to liquidate investment venture in UK
London (PTI), British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty has decided to liquidate her investment company Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd, according to official company filings with the UK's Companies House this week.
The 43-year-old businesswoman had incorporated the venture in 2013 with her husband as one of the directors, before he resigned in 2015.
According to the latest financial statement for the year ended December 2022 available for the company on Wednesday, Murty as the only director of the firm has now decided to wind down her firm as a going concern.
"During the year, the directors have decided to liquidate the Company," notes the Companies House filing statement.
"Accordingly, the financial statements have been prepared on a basis other than going concern and no adjustments were necessary in these financial statements to reduce assets to their realisable values or to provide for liabilities arising from that decision," it reads.
The value of the company's investments for the period was stated at just over GBP 3.8 million, up from just over GBP 3.5 million in 2021 and the funds becoming due to Murty amounted to just over GBP 4.6 million.
Catamaran Ventures UK Ltd has been operating as an investment vehicle for funds from her shares in Infosys, the Indian software giant co-founded by her father N.R. Narayana Murthy. However, the ventures it has invested in have not had the best run.
According to an analysis by The Times' newspaper, education start-up Mrs Wordsmith backed by Catamaran closed less than six months after receiving GBP 650,000 from the UK government's pandemic support scheme called Future Fund.
The New Craftsmen, a Catamaran-backed furniture company which closed in November 2022, also benefited from the fund. And, Digme Fitness, a boutique London fitness chain of which Murty was a director, failed in 2021.
Study Hall, an education technology business in which Catamaran has a stake, was given a government grant of GBP 349,976 via state body Innovate UK last year, prompting questions from the Opposition Labour Party benches.
Murty's investments outside Catamaran also came under the spotlight this year when it emerged she had shares in Koru Kids one of six childminder agencies in England that stood to benefit from a new Budget scheme announced by the Sunak-led government. It led to a declaration of interest inquiry by the UK parliamentary watchdog, which concluded last month that Sunak's failure to reference his wife's shares in Koru Kids arose out of "confusion and was accordingly inadvertent".
"I apologise for these inadvertent errors and confirm acceptance of your proposal for rectification," Sunak wrote in a letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg.
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Has Iran given any assurance on Strait of Hormuz: Kejriwal asks PM Modi
New Delhi (PTI): AAP convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday sought to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi if Iran has given an assurance that Indian ships would be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
His remarks came after Prime Minister Modi on Thursday night spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian over the phone and discussed the "serious situation" in West Asia.
The prime minister told the Iranian President that the safety and security of Indian nationals, along with the need for unhindered transit of goods and energy, remain India's top priorities.
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In a post on X, the AAP chief asked whether Indians would soon get a reprieve from the serious situation arising out of the West Asia conflict.
"Prime Minister, has the President of Iran assured you that they will allow our ships to pass through Hormuz? Will the countrymen soon be rid of this serious crisis?" Kejriwal said in the post in Hindi.
Notably, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping passage through which India's substantial energy imports come.
Three days back, a bulk oil carrier sailing to India was fired upon by Iranian forces as it was trying to cross through the Strait of Hormuz.
