Speculation about Indonesian online travel unicorn Traveloka‘s IPO plans was set off after an Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) executive said it could be the first unicorn to go public on the local bourse.
IDX listing director I Gede Nyoman Yetna told reporters that Traveloka executives had been discussing a potential IPO with the bourse but declined to share any further details.
For context, GOJEK executives were reported to have met with IDX officials in March last year for a similar discussion. A year later, a listing does not appear to be on the horizon for the ride-hailing and payments firm.
Traveloka remained non-committal in its response to IPO queries, saying there was no short-term plan to list its shares on the IDX. “Going for an IPO is a positive corporate action for the company, but currently we are still focusing on developing our platform,” Traveloka public relations director Sufintri Rahayu said in a statement.
Over the past few years, the Indonesian government and IDX have been encouraging startups to adopt the IPO route. IDX, on its part, has already undertaken a few initiatives to incorporate changes in the listing regulations.
The bourse now allows small companies that have at least 5 billion rupiah ($354,485) in net tangible assets, net income of around 1 billion rupiah and 100 billion rupiah in market capitalization to list their shares on the IDX.
The Indonesian government anticipates the startup ecosystem to spawn as many as 1,000 tech enterprises by 2020, with a combined value of around $10 billion.
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