The new year is shaping up to be a big one for Birmingham, and national media are picking up the scent.
Newsweek is excited about The World Games 2022 in Birmingham. (contributed)
Already, Birmingham has been mentioned on the hot lists of two major magazines as a place to see, and be seen, in 2022.
The editors of Condé Nast Traveler magazine say Birmingham is among the “22 Best Places to Go in 2022.” And Newsweek magazine lists The World Games 2022 in Birmingham among the international happenings deserving of attention in a story about “22 Things to Look Forward to in 2022.”
Birmingham makes the list of Condé Nast’s top 22 destinations for 2022 primarily because of its booming restaurant scene. Recently opened Southern grill Helen and The Essential are highlighted as some of the city’s best culinary offerings, among many.
The revitalization of downtown Birmingham paired with its historic buildings is another draw, according to the editors. The magazine and its digital site also cite the new Urban Supply development in Parkside and City Walk BHAM, which will add markets, recreation and greenspace, and food trucks to 10 city blocks beneath the newly reconstructed downtown section of Interstate 59/20.
Newsweek heralds Birmingham in a section of its cover story called “Let the Games Begin — and Keep Going.” It notes the XXIV Winter Olympic Games kicking off in Beijing in February, followed by the XIII Paralympic Games in Beijing in March. “If that’s still not enough global play for you, the World Games will take place starting July 7 in Birmingham,” the magazine proclaims, describing the spectrum of non-Olympic sports that will be featured during the event, ranging “from the familiar (lacrosse, rugby) to the frankly bizarre, including ‘korfball,’ a distant cousin of basketball in which mixed teams battle to toss a ball through a raised goal called a ‘korf’ (Dutch for ‘basket’).”
Condé Nast Traveler is high on Birmingham’s restaurant scene. (contributed)
The Condé Nast list also highlights Birmingham’s role as host of The World Games, which are expected to draw 500,000 spectators from across the globe to the city. An anticipated 3,600 athletes will compete in more than 30 sports.
“This is going to be a huge deal for the city of Birmingham,” said Jonathan Porter, senior vice president of Customer Operations for Alabama Power and chairman of the board of directors for the 2022 World Games Foundation. “It’s a great opportunity to put Birmingham and Alabama on the world stage and continue to change the narrative that people who have never been here have about our city and state.”
Birmingham is in exotic company on the Condé Nast list of global food hotspots, with Serbia and Trøndelag County, Norway, also on the roster. Among other recommended destinations are Charleston, South Carolina, and Istanbul for arts and culture; London and Querétaro, Mexico, for history; the Great Lakes and Kyushu, Japan, for transportation; Sicily and Singapore for sustainability; and Malta and West Virginia for the best outdoors and beach destinations. Visit Condé Nast Traveler to see the complete list.
As for Newsweek’s list of “22 Great Things in 2022,” it includes a much broader array of items, from cultural events to health and technological advances. Among them are: Pfizer’s new antiviral pill; the impending rollout of the 5G cellular network; the Floriade Expo 2022, a once-a-decade international horticulture exhibition taking place in the Netherlands; the just-launched James Webb Space Telescope; and singer Adele’s scheduled residency in Las Vegas. Add to that, Newsweek says, multiple Blockbuster art shows around the globe in 2022, a special Harry Potter retrospective on HBO Max, Dolly Parton’s first novel and a new Girl Scouts cookie. See the full list here.
In this current range you can purchase a variety of items including bags, pyjamas, tea towels, notebooks, water bottles; everything you need and more for the Harry Potter fans in your life!
You can also get your hands on the Harry Potter Book Bag Novelty Lunch Bag for £25. It comes in a red colour with a hand-painted placement design and built-in foil lining for freshness.
Anyone can become a Potterhead—even your four-legged best friend. In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone film adaptation, PetSmart and Warner Bros. have teamed up to turn your pooch into a full-fledged Hogwarts student. The PetSmart Harry Potter collection features 15 toys, collars, and clothing items for your dog. And many of these items come in all four house colors, so you can choose blue for Ravenclaw, yellow for Hufflepuff, green for Slytherin, or red for Gryffindor.
For dogs that like to play fetch or tug of war, this Platform 9 ¾ Rope Flyer at $10 features the train platform’s sign on a red background encircled by a black and white rope. And if your dog reminds you of Cedric Diggory, then they’ll be a perfect fit for the $20 Hufflepuff hoodie, complete with a yellow and black scarf printed on the front and the house mascot, a badger, on the back. However, if you want to be more subtle with your pet’s house affiliation, this blue and gray argyle Ravenclaw collar at $13 should do the trick.
PetSmart
The retailer also has a few promotions currently happening that can be applied to this collection. When you buy two toys, you can get the third one free; and when you buy one collar, harness, or leash, you can get the second one for half off. Both deals end on November 29 at 6:30 a.m. EST. Check out all the collars, clothes, and toys in PetSmart’s Harry Potter collection while they’re still available, and make sure to take advantage of the current promotions before they end on November 29.
Helen Mirren is oddly absent from the Harry Potter film franchise that proved close to a full-employment act for Britain’s acting greats. But she’s found her own path into its magical world.
Dame Helen, as the Oscar, Emmy and Tony-winning actor is properly addressed, makes her debut as a quiz host with “Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses.” The weekly, four-part series begins 8 p.m. EST Sunday on TBS and Cartoon Network.
In episode one, contestants representing the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses field trivia questions about J.K. Rowling’s novels-turned-films in a bid to claim a championship trophy and prizes.
Mirren left the cramming to the players and is unworried about being a novice game show emcee.
“I can certainly play a strict host,” she said, drolly, in an interview with the Associated Press.
‘Harry Potter’ turns 20:All the movies from J.K. Rowling’s magical universe, definitively ranked
Mirren’s willingness to take on something different shouldn’t raise eyebrows. She’s celebrated for her regal roles — including “The Queen,” “Elizabeth I” and “Catherine the Great” — but also counts the Fast the Furious movie franchise among her varied credits.
Her return to a comic book-based project is upcoming: She plays a mythological goddess in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.” Mirren’s baptism in the genre came with the film “Red” and its sequel.
Mirren’s admiration for the Harry Potter series rings true.
“I’m always up for a bit of an adventure. Also, of course, it’s a wonderful subject and at a great moment, the 20th anniversary (of “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first Potter film),” she said. “And the very fact I was never in any Harry Potter movies — much to my chagrin, I might add. It was a great way to to be able to participate in the whole extraordinary phenomena that is Harry Potter.”
Mirren has been open about her feelings about never being apart of the film franchise. “I never actually got to play in the ‘Harry Potter’ films. I don’t know why,” Mirren told Access Online earlier this week, jokingly adding, “I’m rather upset about it quite honestly.”
‘Harry Potter’ at 20:How did childhood fame treat Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint?
HBO Max announces ‘Harry Potter’ reunion:Star Emma Watson celebrates first film’s 20th anniversary
The franchise’s first film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” which premiered in the U.S. Nov. 16, 2001, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Tom Felton and more of the Hogwarts gang will travel back to the magical school with filmmaker Chris Columbus for an HBO Max special to celebrate the magical milestone.
HBO Max announced the retrospective special, “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts,” last week, corresponding with the anniversary. The special will arrive Jan. 1 and feature in-depth interviews and cast conversations and give a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the franchise, according to a press release.
HBO released a teaser trailer for the special in which we see flashbacks from the Harry Potter films and hear Albus Dumbledore’s voice saying: “Mysterious thing, time. When in doubt, I find retracing my steps a wise place to begin.”
Mirren told AP she remembers “when the whole world of Harry Potter started rising. The most magical thing is the way the books were passed from hand to hand amongst kids, and adults sort of didn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t like it was published with great fanfare. A lot of the people who’ll be competing (on the show), they will be in their 20s, 30s, 40s, but they will have past experience with Harry Potter as a kid.”
To take on the hosting gig, Mirren said she “thought I’d just play it by ear and be as natural as I could. I’m personally very excited about it, so hopefully I’ll communicate that. I’ll be probably as nervous as the contestants themselves, and I’ll try to hide that.”
Look back:Meet the tween ‘Harry Potter’ stars in USA TODAY’s first interview with the cast
‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ turns 20: How well did our movie review age?
Contributing: Rasha Ali, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
How much do you know about the boy who lived? Twenty years after the release of the first Harry Potter film, superfans of the Wizarding World will get a chance to test their knowledge in the all new TV trivia special, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses. The mini-series separates competitors into either Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor and lets the teams battle each other in a game of trivia for a chance to win the House Cup Championship.
Viewers can expect to see some exciting guest stars throughout the series, as well as props from the original Harry Potter films. For true fans of the Wizarding World, this short series is sure to be magical. What time is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses on? Who can you expect to see guest star on Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses? When does episode 2 of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses air? Here is everything you need to know.
WHAT TIME IS Harry Potter: HOGWARTS TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES ON?
The battle for the House Cup Championship will begin on November 28, 2021 at 8 P.M/E.T. The first episode of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses will air on both TBS and Cartoon Network as part of its ACME Night.
HOW TO STREAM Harry Potter: HOGWARTS TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES WITHOUT CABLE:
For all of the cable cutters out there, no need to worry: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses will be available on several streaming platforms. Fans can watch new episodes of the series on the TBS website and TBS app, as well as on streaming services such as Hulu, Sling TV, Youtube TV and DIRECTV Stream. You can also stream the series on HBO Max with an active subscription.
WHO CAN YOU EXPECT TO SEE GUEST STAR ON Harry Potter: HOGWARTS TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES?
Real Harry Potter fans will recognize quite a few faces. So far, the guest list includes Simon Fisher-Becker, Matthew Lewis, Luke Youngblood, Tom Felton, Shirly Henderson, Jay Leno, Dan Fogler and…Pete Davidson? The series will also be hosted by English actress Helen Mirren.
WHEN DOES EPISODE 2 OF Harry Potter: HOGWARTS TOURNAMENT OF HOUSES AIR?
New episodes of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses will air weekly on Sundays at 8 P.M/E.T. Need a reference? Here is a schedule for the pilot season of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses.
Episode 1: Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff November 28, 2021
Episode 2: Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin December 5, 2021
At the end of “Harry Potter,” the titular hero didn’t save the Wizarding World from all its evils.
Harry’s last thought, before the series’ epilogue, is if a house-elf will make him a sandwich.
Wizard supremacy appears to be alive and well 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts.
Harry Potter is lauded as the brave and successful hero of the series, but what actually changed after he defeated Voldemort?
The real evils plaguing the Wizarding World cut deeper than one powerful villain. And based on Harry’s thoughts right after the Battle of Hogwarts, his actions didn’t get to the root of the issue.
Harry’s final thought in the last chapter of ‘Deathly Hallows’ proves how limited his success was
In the last sentence of “Deathly Hallows” before the series’ epilogue, we learn Harry’s thoughts after the Battle of Hogwarts:
“… He turned away from the portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor Tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there …”
Kreacher is essentially Harry’s personal slave. In the Wizarding World, house-elves are imprisoned and forced to do manual labor, despite the fact that wizards could easily accomplish those tasks using, you know, magic.
But hierarchies aren’t about pragmatism. They’re about power. In this world, that means maintaining the status of “pure-blood” wizards.
Voldemort used wizard-supremacist ideals to justify his brutal ascent to power, and Harry spends his entire adolescence fighting to defeat him. But mere hours after his ultimate triumph, Harry endorses the very system that Voldemort personified … because he wants a snack.
But maybe we should cut Harry some slack. After all, he was only 17 when he cast the charm that ended Voldemort’s life. And the battle — that the house-elves also fought in — must have beentiring.
Defeating Voldemort didn’t magically end all notions of oppression and wizard supremacy
At the end of the series, it seems like the entire Wizarding World has deluded itself into thinking that the war was won the minute Tom Riddle drew his last breath.
But for those of us paying attention, it’s abundantly clear that Voldemort was never more than a charismatic demagogue whose rise was a symptom of a much deeper, much older, and much more pernicious disease.
Salazar Slytherin tried to rid Hogwarts of “non-pure-blood” wizards in 990. When Harry arrived at Hogwarts 1,000 years later, wizard society was still enslaving house-elves, denying goblins access to wands, colonizing centaur land, and forcing werewolves out of their jobs.
Despite the strained relationships between wizards and magical creatures, the Fountain of Magical Brethren in the Ministry of Magic depicts a centaur, goblin, and house-elf gazing adoringly at a pair of wizards. When injustice becomes law, propaganda becomes duty.
Voldemort wasn’t even the first villain to use wizard supremacy to amass power. Grindelwald made an enduring blueprint for him, and Voldemort’s defeat merely created a legacy for the next dark wizard.
Based on series’ epilogue, it’s clear that not much actually changed after Voldemort’s demise
Unsurprisingly, 19 years later, wizard supremacy is alive and well.
In the series’ epilogue, as Harry arrives at Platform 9 3/4 to send his children off to Hogwarts, his son Albus worries about being sorted into Slytherin.
The Hogwarts house refused to stand against Voldemort during the Battle of Hogwarts, and apparently, it still has a bad reputation.
Ron also nonchalantly admits to using a Confundus charm on a muggle, so evidently, it’s still fine to take away someone’s agency if they’re not a wizard.
The billowing steam from the Hogwarts Express blankets the scene, and it all feels a bit too familiar.
As the train pulls away, I picture Albus and James Potter settling into their carriages and pulling out food that their parents packed for the ride. Despite my best efforts, I can’t help but wonder: Who made their sandwiches?
The Duchess, Birmingham’s most whimsical and charmingly over-the-top food truck, was a vehicle (literally) for bigger things. The perfect ambassador for lots of tasty British dishes, the popularity of The Duchess and Little London Kitchen led directly to the creation of a neighborhood pub — unlike any other in town — that aims to be a catalyst for meaningful community change.
“The Duchess” is what Bea and Matthew Morrissette named their red, 1968 Leyland double-decker bus where customers could sit and enjoy Little London Kitchen’s British comfort foods. The concept was wildly popular from the moment they first parked her at a local brewery in June 2019. The Duchess is actually a dining room on wheels with banquettes cheerfully upholstered with the Union Jack; the couple served out of a food truck trailer, and Birmingham learned quickly that traditional fish ‘n’ chips, Yorkshire pudding and cottage pies pair nicely with local beers. Bea and Matthew even collaborated with Cahaba Brewing Co. on a Little London IPA.
Today, the Little London Kitchen food truck still makes the rounds at breweries, tap rooms and neighborhoods around town (see the schedule on Facebook), but The Duchess mostly stays parked at The Little London — Birmingham’s first authentic British pub. It opened in west Homewood in summer 2021.
“The Little London is a bit of my home that I’m trying to bring here to Birmingham, Alabama,” Bea says. “It should remind you, as soon as you walk in, of the essence of what a British pub is, which is like a living room away from home and, in certain cases, with some really good comfort food.”
There’s a traditional, homey UK pub vibe here. Ornate wallpaper, eclectic curios and lots of happy plants surround re-loved, overstuffed chairs and sofas. Some of these comfortable chairs are snugged up to pub tables of different sizes throughout the dining room. There are seats at the busy bar just inside the front door; there’s porch seating outside under festive lights, and you can eat in The Duchess.
It’s the kind of space where you can have a family dinner or linger over a beer with friends; enjoy a cornhole tournament or an intimate game of darts; and attend a Harry Potter Christmas party, which happened just recently. (Hanging the floating candles and winged keys took some time; they probably will stay up for a while.) There’s Bingo with Bea; live music and poetry readings; and Manchester United games on the telly (Bea’s a big fan, but she’ll show other teams, too, when Man U is not playing).
The food at The Little London includes favorites from the food truck, but the pub kitchen allows Bea to expand the menu to include international dishes that reflect the diverse culinary offerings in London.
“When you walk through the streets of London, you’ll find all kinds of food,” she says. “I’m completely biased, having grown up there, but my love of food — absolutely cultivated by London — encouraged me to travel the world. And so, when I traveled, I took cooking classes everywhere that I traveled. I’m bringing that to Little London.”
Executive chef Teresa Cottrell is the one who interprets those global recipes — scaling them up — for the customers here. “We try and really cultivate authentic food and flavors and experiences, for sure,” Bea says. (She learned to make the pub’s spaghetti Bolognese, “actually a very popular dish in London,” from a woman from Treviso, Italy.) “Even in the simplest form of a beef pie,” she says, “at least, it should be done properly.”
As might be expected, fish ‘n’ chips is the No. 1 dish at The Little London. (Brittany Faush / Alabama NewsCenter)
That means you’ll find traditional hand pies (beef, chicken and vegetable or a vegan massaman version), bangers and mash (made with delicious, peppery Cumberland sausage from Smiley Brothers in Pelham), authentic Yorkshire pudding and classic slow-cooked beef stew. There’s malt vinegar for your chips (fries), or you can dip them into curry sauce, homemade gravy, a cheesy bechamel or slightly spicy boom-boom sauce. You’ll also find global dishes like vegetable massaman pakoras (fritters), ratatouille with grit cakes, Indian curries and that spaghetti Bolognese with Bea’s braised beef ragu.
The Filipino BBQ ribs (sweet and sticky and brined for days) are a customer favorite and are meaningful for Bea. “I’m half Filipino,” she says. “That’s how I learned to cook … with my aunts and my mother. … And so, I always wanted to have a little signature on the menu from Filipino cuisine.” That these ribs are a hit should not be a surprise. “I mean, the South loves the ribs,” Bea says. “I don’t know why I didn’t try that one sooner.”
Salads include a lemony carrot and thyme combination; shredded cabbage lightly pickled in a balsamic-agave dressing; or quinoa with sweet potato, cranberries and pumpkin seeds. There’s a thoughtful kids’ menu, too.
Fish ‘n’ chips, with scratch-made tartar sauce, remains the most popular dish. Period. To date, they’ve served more than 18,000 portions (that’s 30,000 pounds of potatoes a year alongside sustainable cod) on newspaper-lined baskets.
There are a variety of imported beers in bottles and on tap. They offer blended beers, too — combinations of beer and cider like a Black and Gold (Guinness and Magners); look for the occasional keg of something special like Tennent’s Scottish lager. Specialty cocktails include a Pimm’s Cup, an Earl Gray-tini, a mint tea mojito. (A friend ordered a dirty martini, and they served it in a teacup — “from Bea’s own wedding china,” the server told her.)
The Little London is also the kind of place that captures hearts and instills an interesting sort of loyalty.
Regular customers (Bea calls them “Little Londoners”) often pitch in, telling newcomers how to order at the bar, get a numbered bottle with a flag and find their own seat anywhere. Some of these regulars have even adopted the habits you’ll see with customers in pubs across the pond: Bus your own table, and if you want another beer, bring your glass to the bar to get it.
Only a few weeks after they signed the lease for the pub, the country shut down because of COVID-19. But even as Bea and Matthew were creating the place, friends they’ve made through The Duchess and their food truck stepped in to help out. Some helped paint the pub; Caitlin Hastings, of Botanica, brought in the lush plants that thrive in this space.
Customers stopped by during the early days of the pandemic to “fill the freezer” with take-and-bake items like shepherd’s pie and bread pudding. (You still can get these in the freezer near the front.) People picked up afternoon tea to go; they bought family meals like beef Wellington and Cornish hens. Bea and Matthew sold baked goods online and took the food truck to neighborhoods to “bring food to the people.” Sometimes, Bea says, people just came by to leave money in the tip jar.
During the second wave of infection last winter, they had to shut down, so Bea asked for help. “I just did one post with a GoFundMe link on it. Just on Facebook. … You feel like, as a business, you shouldn’t ask, but coming from a nonprofit background and knowing what I was trying to bring here, I was like, ‘Let’s see if they want it.’ Because we have so many customers that have so much affection for us. And in a day, we made $10,000. From one post.” It was about more than the money, though. “It was like, ‘OK, people want us here,” she says she told Matthew. “We have to just keep on at this.’”
The Duchess, a double-decker bus, is outfitted for dining. (Brittany Faush / Alabama NewsCenter)
Bea and Matthew, in turn, are paying it forward.
They’ve opened their kitchen for other food trucks to use as a commissary during the pandemic. Trucks like Ono Ice (handmade Hawaiian shaved ice), Tap’a Top (Jamaican foods) and Sahani (Kenyan dishes). They park there and just help pay for water. There are collaborations and kitchen takeovers and strategy sessions.
This idea of neighbor helping neighbor is playing out in a larger way through Bea’s nonprofit, The Murmuration Foundation. The pub, she says, is more than just a way to make a living — it’s a way to fund the nonprofit and help the community.
Bea’s background is in nonprofits, not food. “What I wanted to do was have my own foundation one day, and I wanted to have a commercial entity that could feed that nonprofit … sustainably. Because in that field that I was working in, I’ve seen all echelons of challenges when it comes to funding. I also don’t have a network here because I’m new, you know, and I thought, ‘Food is a connector.’” (She’s from London; Matthew is from the Magic City; the two met in Manhattan.) “I spent two years researching kind of where my passions are and what in my passions would most connect me to people. … Little London was born from that.”
The foundation, Bea says, “aims to look at all areas of what makes a person well and a community well,” things like health, good education, solid occupations, financial well-being. “It’s happening a little quicker than I imagined,” she says. “I wasn’t supposed to start for another year, but we are very much involved in Titusville regeneration now …” focusing on nutrition, health, apprenticeships, education and art. “Some of our events are really targeted,” Bea says. “We have an organization The Flourish Alabama, for example, that is a young, black art organization. … They go in and they educate, and they try to give new artists platforms. … We do private events here once a month for them, so their artists can practice.” Ticket prices go toward filming the artists, “so they have content and can get a foot up.”
The name of Bea’s foundation comes from the synchronized flight of starlings. “The idea with the Murmuration is that all together we create something much larger and more beautiful, but we are all singular in our flight around each other.” It’s all about effective collaboration, she adds.
“Those people who, because of the Netflix series, come from Atlanta and Chattanooga and Huntsville … we’ve seen a rise of that, and that’s been very incredible! I’m like, ‘Wow! Have some bread pudding! It’s a long trip.’”
And locals are quickly loyal.
“It’s been lovely, you know; people have the curiosity,” Bea says. “I think open-minded people are Little Londoners for sure. You can tell when they walk in, and they love it. We see them every other week after that.”
Bea says she hopes people who come to Little London feel “like they’ve experienced … something that transported them through food, through ambiance … that they really feel, when they’ve left here, ‘Well, that was something very different. That was something unique.’ I want to encourage the unique in Birmingham,” she says, “not to be afraid of it, but to be bold and daring and do something that isn’t the norm.”
Another important thing: “For your customers to feel that affection for you when they leave,” she says. “I think affection for us, you know, it’s more than the food. I want you to love the food, of course. I want you to find your favorite dish, and I want you to find your favorite drink, but I want you to leave feeling that you had an experience altogether. That’s kind of the essence of Little London.”
The Little London
162 Oxmoor Road, Homewood
205-249-1937
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“In view of this growing menace, several countries, like China, the Netherlands, Ireland, Germany and Scotland, have imposed partial or total lockdowns.
“The third wave is knocking at our door. We have seen the devastation in the second wave. Many people were infected during the panchayat polls and West Bengal elections. Now the Uttar Pradesh elections are round the corner. Parties are holding rallies attended by lakhs of people where it is impossible to follow Covid protocol. If this is not stopped in time, the results will be more devastating than the second wave.
“Election rallies of political parties should be banned to save the public from the third wave of corona. Parties should be asked to campaign through Doordarshan and newspapers,” he added.
“Under the terms of the definitive agreements, SPNI will have cash balance of $1.5 billion at closing, including through infusion by the current shareholders of SPNI and the promoters (founders) of ZEEL, to enable the combined company to drive sharper content creation across platforms, strengthen its footprint in the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem, bid for media rights in the fast-growing sports landscape and pursue other growth opportunities,” a joint statement said.
“After the closing, SPE will indirectly hold a majority 50.86 per cent of the combined company, the promoters (founders) of ZEEL will hold 3.99 per cent, and the other ZEEL shareholders will hold a 45.15 per cent stake.”
Punit Goenka will lead the combined company as its Managing Director and CEO.
