• Indonesians excited by the country’s first tech ‘unicorn’
• Investors now eyeing GoTo listing after Gojek-Tokopedia merger
Shares in Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak shot up 25% when it launched on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta on Friday.
Investors scrambled to get a piece of Bukalapak amid excitement over the country’s first tech ‘unicorn’ – a startup valued over a $1 billion.
Bukalapak shares rose to 1,060 rupiah ($0.074) after reaching the 25% limit on the exchange’s Development Board, with tens of thousands of investors buying shares on online platforms such as Ajaib and Stockbit, after the firm raised $1.5 billion in Indonesia’s biggest IPO, Reuters reported.
The company is an 11-year-old platform that is the country’s fourth largest e-commerce firm. But it is one of a number of tech firms that has boomed during the pandemic, while also finding powerful backers, such as Ant Group, Microsoft and GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund.
Indonesia’s $40 billion e-commerce market has got a boost from stay-at-home consumers and a shift by more businesses to sell online as the Covid-19 crisis has continued and intensified.
GoTo next?
The listing has fuelled hopes in the thriving startup community, in a region that is home to over 400 million internet users.
“This event will create a snowballing effect and show the path for more Indonesia listings,” said Willson Cuaca, a co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures, an Indonesia-focused venture capital firm.
Investor interest is also running high ahead of a planned multi-billion-dollar IPO by GoTo, Indonesia’s most valuable startup formed through the merger of ride-hailing and food delivery firm Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia.
“We initially ran a non-deal roadshow for 10 days in a row and I was literally having 11-12 meetings every day from 8 till 11 at night and these had to get extended as there was so much more interest,” Bukalapak’s president, Teddy Oetomo, a former banker, told Reuters.
The stellar debut pushed Bukalapak’s market value to $7.5 billion, placing it among Indonesia’s top 15 most valued companies.
The e-commerce firm, which also counts local media and conglomerate Emtek Group among its backers, reported a 26% rise in revenue to $96 million in 2020, up 26% on the year. Registered users stood at 105 million.
Bukalapak, which means “open stall” in Bahasa, works with 7 million agents, or “mitra”, primarily street kiosks and mom-and-pop shops, who it connects to consumer goods distributors, narrowing their supply chain and the cost of their wares.
It focuses on areas outside top-tier cities in the archipelago, and ranks behind Tokopedia, Sea Ltd’s Shopee and Alibaba’s Lazada in the e-commerce segment in terms of market share and gross merchandise value.
“Bukalapak’s IPO shows that there is a large and vibrant market for homegrown Indonesian unicorns,” said Antonio Puno, head of Southeast Asia corporate finance at Bank of America, the joint global coordinator for the issue with UBS.
Bukalapak increased its IPO size in multiple rounds and received roughly $6.5 billion of interest from institutional and retail investors. The retail part of the IPO was doubled to 5%.
Two sources familiar with the matter said the firm had priced its IPO at an enterprise value to sales multiple of 16 times based on next year’s estimated sales.
“This IPO has also demonstrated that Southeast Asia technology companies can achieve a premium valuation for growth with significant demand,” said Nicolo Magni, head of global banking for Southeast Asia and India at UBS.
“This creates a platform for other companies to have sizeable, highly successful offerings to list in Indonesia or other regional exchanges,” he said.
- Jim Pollard and Reuters
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E-Commerce Firm Bukalapak Raises $1.5bn in Indonesia’s Biggest IPO
