From IPO to ICO: The Genesis for Thailand Public Companies Begins

With technological advancements has come cryptocurrency coins. The creation of those coins have brought upon a new form of IPO, the Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

Jay Mart Plc is a public company, listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). It operates within the wholesale and retail sectors for mobile phones and technology accessories. and has a number of subsidiaries. Key among them is J Ventures Limited which is 80% owned by Jay Mart Plc. Yesterday, the firm took to the market as they worked towards raising funds using their new coin, JFin. This follows months of pre-sale issues to the market which took place as early as February.

Back in February (with the pre-sales closing on 28^th February), the company began its pre-sale by trying to sell 100 million tokens at a price of 6.60 baht per token (about $0.21). This was to be subsequently followed by the ICO subscription period between the 1^st and 31^st of March. Additionally, in a release on the first day of trading, J Ventures announced that they had in turn sold about 87% – over 87 million – of these tokens. However, the price eventually tanked by over 57%. The fall dropped Jfin to around its current price of just under 4 baht (about $0.12) per coin. Despite this, investors remained quite hopeful about the future of the coin since it raised a significant amount.

Some years back, a company’s golden moment was going public in a process dubbed an Initial Public Offering (IPO). When this occurred, a company issued its shares to the public for a significant consideration. During this time, management and shareholders alike were sure that they would reap the benefits akin to public companies especially in terms of financing options. J Ventures seems to be breaking this dogma in totality.

Over this ICO period, J Ventures has done a lot in shaping the future of ICOs for Thailand.

First, the Thai government is currently working towards incorporating laws which will govern the cryptocurrency space. This marks a major milestone for the country which has just now decided to venture into this new technology. Second, it has paved way for other players who were looking to harness their own cryptocurrencies.

One such company is Zmine Holdings, which is now working towards creating 180 million baht (about $5.6 million) by issuing 100 million ZMN tokens in a move meant to expand their crypto mining business. The ministry in charge of regulation will be implementing electronic KYC (know your customer) requirements to avoid laundering and other illegal practices when new companies look to raise funds in these large amounts.