BUKALAPAK CLOSE TO US$1.5 BILLION IPO

Online mall Bukalapak is set to raise about 22 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$1.5bil or RM6.33bil) in the country’s largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) that presages a wave of domestic tech listings, according to sources.

The e-commerce marketplace is planning to price its upsized offering of 25.77 billion shares at 850 rupiah (RM0.25) apiece, according to the sources.

The shares were marketed at 750 rupiah (RM0.22) to 850 rupiah (RM0.25) each.

The retailer would be valued at about US$6bil (RM25.31bil) after the offering was expanded, the sources said.

Deliberations are ongoing and an announcement on the final pricing could come as soon as today, according to a source.

A representative for Bukalapak declined to comment.

Bukalapak’s IPO will be a milestone for Indonesia, as the coronavirus pandemic has boosted demand for e-commerce in the world’s fourth most populous country, according to the sources.

The company will be competing with the likes of SoftBank Group Corp-backed Tokopedia, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Lazada Group and Shopee, a unit of Singapore-based Sea Ltd, in the South-East Asian nation.

Bukalapak, which is backed by Microsoft Corp and Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co, is going public as the region’s startup scene matures and investors seek exits.

GoTo, the country’s biggest tech startup valued at US$18bil (RM75.92bil), is expected to tap local stock markets while the region’s most valuable private firm, Grab Holdings Inc, aims to go public via a blank-check firm in the second half of the year.Bukalapak would rank as Indonesia’s largest-ever IPO, eclipsing PT Adaro Energy’s US$1.3bil (RM5.48bil) offering in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It aims to debut Aug 6.

Besides Bukalapak and ride-hailing giant GoTo, three other local firms with a combined value of roughly US$2bil (RM8.44bil) are looking to float shares, Pandu Sjahrir, a commissioner at the Indonesia Stock Exchange, has said.

Bukalapak, which means “open a stall” in Bahasa Indonesia, is an online bazaar founded in 2010 that sells products from grapes and shoes to cars and televisions.

The startup’s other backers include Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, Naver Corp and Standard Chartered Plc. The company posted revenue of US$95.8mil (RM404.08mil) in 2020 and 104.9 million registered users, it said in an earlier statement.Bukalapak is taking advantage of relaxing requirements around listings.

From Hong Kong to London, stock exchanges around the world are trying to capture a slice of a global IPO boom.

Indonesia – whose US$450bil (RM1.9 trillion) stock market value eclipses that of Singapore’s – joins its fellow bourses in relaxing regulations to entice often loss-making but highly sought-after fast-growth startups.

There have been more than 20 IPOs so far this year and more are in the pipeline, IDX Director I Gede Nyoman Yetna has said.

Source: Bloomberg