JAKARTA: Indonesian ride-hailing and payments company Gojek’s new co-chief executives are preparing for a dual listing in the coming years and a bigger regional market share, they said as they take over operations of the $10 billion company.
Co-founder and previous CEO Nadiem Makarim announced on last Monday he had resigned to join the second-term cabinet of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, where he has been named education and culture minister.
New co-CEO Andre Soelistyo, who was previously Gojek group’s president, told a media briefing that the firm “is likely to do a dual listing as we are an Indonesian company first”.
He said the lack of technology public offerings of this size in Indonesia would mean Gojek needed to “educate the market”, comparing it to the path taken by Indonesian conglomerate and Gojek investor Astra.
The new co-CEO said the firm was working on “building better governance” with the IPO in mind though “with no set date”, while expanding its user base to derive half from overseas.
According to Gojek, 80 per cent of its client base originates from Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, equivalent to 29.2 million active users. It claims 7.1 million other monthly active users in the rest of the region.
The company is set to raise $2 billion by the year-end from backers including Alphabet’s Google and Chinese tech giants Tencent and JD, its new CEOs said. Bankers have identified Gojek’s potential IPO as a key float to track in Asia’s ride-hailing and mobile payments market, catching the attention of global investors.
Having evolved from a ride-hailing service founded in 2010 to a one-stop app via which users can make online payments and order food and services such as massages, Gojek targets a larger slice of the Southeast Asian market, where Singapore-based Grab dominates ride-sharing.
However, analysts say Makarim’s surprise move comes in the heat of an expensive battle with Softbank-funded Grab and raises questions about the firm’s international expansion.
Joint CEOs Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi told reporters it would be business as usual for the firm and that Makarim, who is keeping his stake in Gojek, would have no advisory or executive role. — Reuters
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