The $528m spotlight on Blibli

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Hi there,

This might not be the best time to go after the public market, especially if you’re an underdog.

So Blibli’s upcoming Indonesia IPO scheduled for November 7 might surprise some people and is definitely worth noting.

The company, despite being backed by major local conglomerate Djarum Group, has never dominated Indonesia’s ecommerce space. However, its strength lies in selling original products, particularly electronics.

Recently, it has focused more on an omnichannel strategy, allowing consumers to order online and pick up their items offline.

But is this enough to excite investors amid the downturn? Blibli aims to raise US$528 million on the local bourse, which could boost its valuation to US$3.5 billion.

In this week’s Hot Take, I dissected Blibli’s financial performance based on its available prospectus. The numbers show that going public might be the only option on the cart now for the company. In addition, having Djarum Group as a backer could be a double-edged sword.

– Jofie

THE HOT TAKE

Is Blibli’s IPO a risk worth taking?

Image credit: Timmy Loen

With an IPO set for November 7, Blibli will become Indonesia’s third tech unicorn to go public, coming in after Bukalapak and GoTo.

Although lagging behind Shopee and Tokopedia in Indonesia, Blibli is backed by Djarum Group, a local conglomerate owned by the richest people in the country, the Hartono brothers.

In its prospectus, Blibli recorded a 124% increase in net revenue in the first half of this year to US$434 million, which is up from US$194 million in the same period last year.

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