Treasure Global IPO: What to know as the Malaysian e-commerce platform’s stock hits the Nasdaq

The past few weeks have offered up investors something along the lines of buried treasure in the form of two Hong Kong-based financial firms. Both Magic Empire Global and AMTD Digital recently went public and subsequently saw their share values skyrocket, earning some traders a nice return. But many hungry investors, who perhaps missed out on the rise of Magic Empire and AMTD, are wondering: When will the next gold vein appear?

It may arrive today, as Treasure Global Inc., a Malaysia-based e-commerce company, IPOs, with shares expected to start trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker “TGL.” Two million shares will hit the market, and will initially be priced at $4. Treasure Global attempts to marry online commerce with physical retailers, and it has an app, called Zcity, which shoppers can use to find deals, get rebates, and more, according to its prospectus. It’s also working on a new platform aimed at food and beverage businesses, called Tazte, which can help streamline restaurant operations and process payments, among other things.

These aren’t exactly groundbreaking products and services, but neither are the services offered by Magic Empire or AMTD. So, while it’s merely speculative at this point, it’s worth wondering whether the company’s stock could pop in the coming days or weeks. It does fit the relative profile of Magic Empire and AMTD in another key way, too: The three are all rather obscure, Asia-based companies with relatively inexpensive share prices. Or, at least share prices were inexpensive when they first went public.

As such, Treasure Global could serve as a fresh bucketful of chum for meme stock traders, or the market chaos harbingers on message boards like Reddit’s WallStreetBets, who have been busy over the past week pushing up shares of Bed Bath & Beyond.

Both AMTD and Magic Empire did catch the attention of WallStreetBets, and likely other message board-based traders, as mentions of both stocks spiked within the past couple of weeks, according to data from Quiver Quantitative. The attention from WallStreetBetters, and others, was likely the driving force behind their share value increases.

“It’s likely that some aggressive retailer investors are pushing this stock through message boards (similar to GameStop and AMC of last year),” Greg Martin, founder and managing director of Liquid Stock and managing director of Archer Venture Capital, recently told Fast Company.

Treasure Global’s share started trading shortly after 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, and while there have been crickets thus far about the stock on WallStreetBets, trading was halted almost immediately as an influx of buy orders sent the stock immediately above $7 per share. As of 11 a.m. ET, shares were trading at more than $9—a 130% increase.