Malaysian-made MOL Global, the high-flying darling of Berjaya Group that scored a Nasdaq listing in early October, is quickly seeing hopes of e-payment world domination, flying away.Working on what had seemed to be a successful formula since 2000, MOL Global’s money spinner, MOLPay, operated as an online-to-offline payment company, targeting online gamers who paid for virtual goods, using MOL Points that could be purchased from 970,000 physical outlets across 13 countries.
If that doesn’t sound like oodles of money being generated, I don’t know what will.
But nearly 2 months since making its initial public offering, MOL Global’s share prices have been steadily dipping from USD8.86 to USD4.09.
What happened? What could have possibly gone awry? Could the offline way to pay for online gaming be facing pressure from other up and coming e-payment methods? Is the online gaming industry itself, facing a rough patch?
It slowly comes to light that this downhill trend for MOL has been a long time coming. Rumours have been coming from all quarters that MOL’s books were subjected to some very, very ‘creative accounting.’
What else could explain the flurry of investor claims of securities violations? Or the sudden resignation of its Group CFO, not even 4 months into the job? Did he chance upon something that made him go green?
But the biggest blow to MOL was launched from within its own camp: rumours have it that the biggest supporter and IPO sponsor for MOL Global’s listing, Berjaya’s Vincent Tan, is telling investors to stay away from those MOL’s shares.
IT BYTES BACK! Says: Will the sound of kaching-ching turn into the death knell for MOL Group? Nobody saw this coming, not even Vincent Tan it seems, so it is a great big shock and disappointment for those who were rooting for a Malaysian tech company, to make it big on the world stage.
