Jakarta

INDONESIAN e-commerce firm Bukalapak is keen to raise as much as US$800 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in August, two people with knowledge of the matter said, the first of two big tech listings in Jakarta this year that will add long-sought lustre to the local bourse.

A mid-year debut could see it become Indonesia's biggest listing in 10 years and the largest ever for the country by a startup. But those milestones will likely later be overtaken by the planned listing of GoTo - a new company to be formed by the merger of e-commerce rival Tokopedia and ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek.

Tapping a sharp pick-up in investor interest in South-east Asia's rapidly expanding technology sector, Bukalapak, the country's No 4 e-commerce firm, is aiming to sell 10 to 15 per cent of the company and wants a valuation of between US$4-5 billion, the people said.

A confidential listing prospectus has been submitted to the Indonesia stock exchange, one of the sources said.

Proceeds from the offering could range between US$500 million and US$800 million depending on investor demand and market conditions, said the sources who were not authorised to speak on the matter and declined to be identified.

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Bukalapak, which said in 2019 it was valued at more than US$2.5 billion, declined to comment.

The 11-year-old startup which claims to have more than 100 million users has a plethora of big-name investors backing it including Microsoft, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, local media conglomerate Emtek, the investment arm of Standard Chartered and South Korean web portal Naver Corp.

Bukalapak was originally aiming to raise US$300 million from its domestic listing before looking to merge with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in the United States, but it is now focusing solely on its IPO, one of the sources said.

The listing, which sources say is set to take place mid-August, is a victory for Indonesia's bourse which has been conducting an extensive charm offensive to convince the country's thriving startups to list locally instead of heading to the US.

Stagnant for many years, Indonesia's total IPO deal value took a further hit during the coronavirus pandemic, more than halving in 2020 to US$470 million, Refinitiv data showed. So far this year, 15 companies have raised a combined US$125 million via IPOs. REUTERS