Country Heights shareholders give nod to ICO plan

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Country View said that the acquisition

KUALA LUMPUR: Country Heights Holdings Bhd shareholders have approved the company’s plan to conduct an initial coin offering (ICO) in order to issue its own cryptocurrency called “horse currency.”

The company’s plan is to eventually issue one billion horse currencies backed by RM2bil worth of physical assets held by the holding company with an initial 300 million open to the public for circulation, a statement by Country Heights said.

It said that the cryptocurrency will leverage on the blockchain technology to operate.

Country Heights founder and chairman Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew said at a press conference after the extraordinary general meeting that it was still waiting for the rules and regulations by the Securities Commission which is expected to by out by the first quarter of next year.

“We hope that when the regulations by the SC is ready by next year that we would like to be the first to launch this cryptocurrency (in the country). We have a taskforce that will continue to engage the relevant authorities including the Bursa Malaysia, SC and Bank Negara,” Lee said.

The appointed task force will also be in charge of engaging a legal firm and an investment banker to facilitate the roll out of the horse currency.

Lee said that the company would like to back this cryptocurrency with physical assets from the company.

“We have many assets and have never really revalued these assets. Whoever buys or owns this cryptocurrency will have a sense of security as it is asset backed,” he said.

When asked why did the company choose ICO over traditional fund-raising, Lee said that the blockchain technology cuts down costs.

“It is an open ledger and I feel that going forward this is an inevitable trend that when you use blockchain and cryptocurrency it can also be a way to raise funds: many countries have regulated it as well,” Lee said.

“Today tech keeps changing for example people complain our internet fees are too high. So the government really has to encourage this. Another example is when we send (text) messages to each other: there are not costs involved - but many service providers charge people a lot of money. So the government should allow this (ICO) to ensure costs are brought down,” he added.

That being said, Lee said that he would still like to engage with investment bankers as he believes that the banks can still make money from this ICO product.

“I would like to find if there are any that are interested in me or not. So if there are, they can underwrite to sell just like an IPO. The banks still have a role and can make money. I believe all big banks have to engage in blockchain eventually,” he said.