SINGAPORE: Indonesia’s biggest tech firm GoTo Group is testing investors’ appetite with a public offering that is set to raise up to 17.992 trillion rupiah (US$1.3bil or RM5.5bil) this month, marking one of the biggest domestic offerings in the booming sector.

       In its prospectus published yesterday, GoTo said it plans to sell up to 52 billion Series A shares and set a price range of 316 rupiah (9.3 sen) to 346 rupiah (10 sen) per share for the issue.

       The book-building process started yesterday and would end on March 21, with the listing set for April 4.

       GoTo, formed by merging ride-hailing-to-payments firm Gojek and eCommerce leader Tokopedia last year, counts Alibaba Group, SoftBank Group Corp, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Tencent Holdings among its backers.

       The initial public offering (IPO) comes at a time when global stocks have tumbled and issuers are postponing offerings as the crisis in Ukraine pushes up commodity prices, stoking worries of economic damage.

       Still, some commodity-heavy markets such as Indonesia are holding up, with the local index up 5.7% so far this year after rising to a record high in recent weeks.

       The widely expected IPO comes after GoTo secured more than US$1.3bil from investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Fidelity International late last year in its pre-IPO funding exercise.

       Since the Covid-19 pandemic, food delivery, eCommerce and payment services have seen explosive growth in Indonesia, South-East Asia’s largest economy, with investors rushing to back fast-growing companies.

       GoTo’s IPO’s underwriters include PT Indo Premier Sekuritas, PT Mandiri Sekuritas and PT Trimegah Sekuritas Indonesia. — Reuters