JAKARTA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Traveloka, Southeast Asia’s biggest online travel startup, is turning to financial services to boost profits and may opt for a dual listing in Indonesia and a another center if the group launches an initial public offering (IPO), its chairman said.
The seven-year-old startup joins other leading local unicorns such as ride-sharing company Gojek and e-commerce company Tokopedia to consider dual listing to stay closer to their home market while seeking a pool of talent. diversified investors.
Traveloka Group chairman Henry Hendrawan declined to comment on its valuation or the timing of a possible IPO, but said he would consider a dual listing at home and in another hub such as the United States.
“Registration in the United States will have its advantages, but we want to have the option of having some sort of local registration, so maybe dual registration will be a good structure,” he said in a statement. interview.
Traveloka, backed by US travel giant Expedia, Chinese online retailer JD.Com and Singapore state fund GIC Pte Ltd, claims 35 million active users across seven countries and has raised over $900 million .
Traveloka considered a listing as recently as early 2019 and had been in contact with technology bankers, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Its IPO plans appear to have been pushed back due to the slowing global economy and poor performance by newly listed companies such as Uber Technologies and a sharp drop in valuations of the US space-sharing company. WeWork offices.
He chose to focus on fundraising instead and was in talks with investors to raise $500 million earlier this year, a source said.
Those talks pegged Traveloka’s valuation at $4.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported in July.
“We are still in conversation with potential partners…we are looking for potential partners who can take our capability to the next level,” Hendrawan said.
EXPANSION
Initially focused on ticketing and hotel reservations, Traveloka turned to financial services. She launched a credit card in Southeast Asia’s largest economy with Bank Rakyat Indonesia.
“Overall, financial services started from almost zero at the start of last year and we expect it to easily be a billion-dollar business next year,” Hendrawan said. in an interview.
Hendrawan, a former Boston Consulting Group management consultant, said he targets “underbanked” Indonesian customers with his PayLater product, which provides consumer loans to customers to help pay for services.
Digital financial services in Southeast Asia are expected to generate annual revenues of around $38 billion by 2025, up sharply from $11 billion in 2019, according to a report by consultants Bain & Co, Google and Temasek this week.
Traveloka is also increasingly focusing on travel and lifestyle “experiences” to boost its margins, taking on U.S. rental company Airbnb and Hong Kong-based SoftBank-backed startup Klook.
Traveloka launched its Xperience brand in July, offering 15,000 activities and services, aiming to move closer to a travel and lifestyle platform. (Additional reporting by Fanny Potkin in Jakarta and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; editing by Miyoung Kim and Jason Neely)
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