Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia announced it has engaged Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as advisors as part of plans to accelerate its public listing.
In an official statement responding to a recent report by Bloomberg Quint on their exit plan, a Tokopedia spokesperson wrote:
“Market adoption is accelerating business growth since the pandemic. We are considering to accelerate our plan to go public and we have appointed Morgan Stanley and Citi to be our advisors. We have not decided yet which market and method, and still considering options.”
“SPAC is a potential option that we could consider but that we have not committed to anything at the moment.”
Bridgetown Holdings is a blank-check company backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li. Published on December 15, the report stated that it is mulling a potential merger with the Jakarta-based e-commerce company.
Dealstreet Asia wrote that though a sale to a SPAC represents a faster route to a US listing, Tokopedia Co-Founder and CEO William Tanuwijaya had previously expressed his desire for a dual listing to ensure local employees and Indonesians can own shares of the firm.
Also Read: What does Peter Thiel-backed Bridgetown’s IPO mean for SEA’s startup ecosystem?
Tokopedia has raised US$2.80 billion in funding till date from investors including SoftBank, Alibaba and Temasek Holdings, making it the second-highest valued startup in Indonesia after gojek.
According to reports, Tokopedia could be valued up to US$10 billion.
Bridgetown itself has raised US$550 million in a US IPO in October. In an interview with e27, experts commented that the SPAC model that the company is implementing can be “an alternative” way to fundraise for startups in SEA.
“Having seen the more than 100 SPACs emerge in North America earlier this year, we are not surprised to see this new SPAC coming out to focus on Southeast Asia. We welcome this initiative, which will provide an alternative path to liquidity and access to public markets for one or more rising tech, financial services or media company in the region,” said Sanjay Zimmermann, Senior Associate at White Star Capital.
This is especially relevant since Bridgetown has announced that it “plans on targeting a company in Southeast Asia with operations or prospective operations in the technology, financial services, or media sectors”.
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Image Credit: Tokopedia
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