Stock of e-commerce firm up in Indonesia debut

Shares of Indonesian e-commerce company Blibli rose 4.9% in its Indonesian stock market debut Tuesday, in what was the country’s second-largest initial public offering this year. 

Shares of PT Global Digital Niaga Tbk, which owns Blibli, climbed as high as 472 rupiah in early trading, up from its IPO price of 450 rupiah per share. The company raised as much as 7.99 trillion rupiah ($509.2 million).

In early afternoon trade, the stock was trading at about 452 rupiah.

Blibli is the latest tech company to list in Southeast Asia since Indonesian unicorns Bukalapak’s $1.5 billion share sale in August 2021 and GoTo’s $1.1 billion IPO in April.  

Blibli, an online marketplace selling a range of household and lifestyle goods, was founded in 2011 and is owned by the Indonesian e-commerce group PT Global Digital Niaga which also runs an online travel business and supermarket chains. 

The company is backed by Djarum Group, one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates known for producing Indonesian kretek cigarettes.

The listing comes amid global macroeconomic headwinds such as inflation, rising interest rates, a looming recession and volatility in the tech sector. 

Bukalapak is trading about 66% below its offer price, and GoTo is trading around 42% below its IPO price.

Other Southeast Asian e-commerce companies such as Sea Limited‘s share price plummeted from $340 a year ago, to $48 today as the company faced operational uncertainty and billions of losses. Grab, which listed in December 2021, fell from its opening share price of $13.06 drop to $2.94 today.

Similarly, GoTo, Grab and Sea Limited have grocery shopping verticals as well, suggesting Blibli could be part of a larger macro trend of grocery delivery companies listing.

Online grocery shopping took off at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and was one of the fastest-growing segments last year, according to research by Facebook and Bain.