JKN’s eight-year run on Thailand’s stock market ends as shares face delisting over false 2023 accounts

December 26, 2025 is the final day investors can trade shares in JKN Global Group Plc (JKN), founded and led by Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, before the company is removed from the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has announced it will revoke JKN’s listed status after concluding the company disclosed false information in its 2023 financial statements, which it said could severely affect shareholders’ rights and interests. JKN is scheduled to be formally delisted on December 27, 2025.

Although the Central Bankruptcy Court earlier this month appointed Grant Thornton Specialist Advisory Services Co., Ltd. as JKN’s rehabilitation plan preparer, market talk has cast the prospects of a turnaround as close to “zero”, amid claims that many assets may already have been moved out of the company.

The commentary follows circulating reports alleging that a “former JKN executive” fled overseas with 6 billion baht, leaving behind tens of thousands of retail investors and seven series of debenture creditors.

From IPO success to a rapid unraveling

JKN first listed on the Market for Alternative Investment (mai) on November 30, 2017, offering shares at an IPO price of 8 baht and raising 3.1 billion baht. After later moving to the main board (SET), JKN’s share price hit an all-time high of 16.27 baht on January 5, 2018.

Over the next eight years, Jakkaphong repeatedly refreshed the company’s growth narrative, backed by years of reported net profit after the listing. Warning signs began to emerge from 2021, amid a period when Thailand’s cannabis liberalisation helped drive sharp share-price reactions for firms announcing plans to enter the sector.

In October 2022, JKN approved an 800-million-baht investment to acquire the Miss Universe Organization (MUO), a move that reinforced market excitement at the time.

That “honeymoon” began to fade in 2023, when the company recorded losses tied to asset and investment valuations totalling more than 1 billion baht. JKN also set aside provisions for doubtful trade receivables, as customers in the traditional media sector — a key buyer group for JKN’s content licensing — faced liquidity strains, making collections more difficult.

These pressures were compounded by consumer shifts towards online platforms and declining advertising revenue in traditional television.

Bond defaults and a widening crisis

As liquidity tightened, the crisis spread to JKN’s bond market obligations. The company began defaulting on debentures, starting with JKN239A, which matured on September 1, 2023, involving 609 million baht.

The initial default was followed by cross-defaults on six additional series: JKN246A, JKN243A, JKN240A, JKN24NA, JKN252A and JKN255A.

Against this backdrop, Jakkaphong later disclosed that JKN Legacy — a JKN subsidiary holding Miss Universe-related rights — had been sold to a company linked to Raul Rocha Cantú on October 20, 2023, with the disclosure made only on January 22, 2024.

Regulatory action and criminal complaints

Following the disclosure issues, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposed civil penalties on JKN and Jakkaphong for disseminating false information. Around the same time, the SEC also filed a criminal complaint with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) over allegations linked to the manipulation of JKN’s 2023 financial statements, including the presentation of liabilities and assets below their true levels — conduct that could constitute offences under securities law.

The case has fuelled wider investor questions about whether regulators, including the SEC and the SET, can strengthen confidence in Thailand’s capital market, amid repeated corporate scandals in recent years involving executives accused of similar conduct.