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Grab buys Tokopedia’s, Lippo’s shares in OVO
The Southeast Asian tech giant and Gojek rival now owns nearly 90 percent of OVO, in a deal the Indonesian payment services provider said was part of its restructuring plan.
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rab Holdings Inc. has expanded its ownership to almost 90 percent of PT Visionet Internasional, the developer of digital payment platform OVO, by acquiring stakes in the company from founder Lippo Group and e-commerce giant PT Tokopedia.
The Southeast Asian technology company previously owned 39 percent of shares in PT Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa, OVO’s parent company, while Lippo Group and Tokopedia respectively owned 7.2 percent and 36.1 percent.
OVO confirmed the deal in a statement on Tuesday, saying the share restructuring was taken in line with its plans.
“Change in ownership structure is a common part of a technology company's journey,” the statement read. “With the support of shareholders, including a number of local investors who will soon enter, OVO hopes to accelerate its digital transformation.”
OVO would still be available as a payment option for Tokopedia and Lippo Group platforms, the statement added.
“This transaction has been planned for some time and will allow us to continue to focus on further deepening the market-leading strategy of GoPay and the broader GoTo Financial ecosystem,” Tokopedia’s parent company GoTo said in a statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.
A new Bank Indonesia (BI) regulation stipulates that a company may not own more than 25 percent shares or have voting rights in more than one payment services provider. The regulation also stipulates that local investors must own at least 15 percent of shares in nonbank companies that provide payment services, such as digital wallets.
Tokopedia merged in May with Gojek, Grab’s rival that owns e-wallet platform GoPay, and thus needed to relinquish its ownership in OVO.
Read also: BI tightens capital control over payment system firms
Nailul Huda, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said that, to comply with the BI regulation, Grab would probably need to give at least 5 percent of its ownership in OVO to PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek), with which it formed a strategic partnership in July.
“Some of the shares could also be released to Bukalapak,” he added, as Emtek owned around 34 percent shares in the e-commerce company.
“Grab and the Emtek group will explore potential collaboration across logistics and e-commerce, financial services, telemedicine, advertising and digital media, as well as digital products for traditional kiosks,” Grab said in a press statement on Sept. 14.
“For example, in a new collaboration, Grab will onboard Bukalapak’s storefronts to GrabMart, providing these merchants with access to new customers,” it added.
OVO has the largest share in Indonesia’s e-wallet market at 38.2 percent, according to Boku’s Mobile Payments Report 2021, reaching US$10.7 billion in annual transactions in 2020. The figure is projected to reach $40.9 billion in 2025.
