Fore Coffee’s IPO oversubscribed by over 200x

Photo credit: Fore Coffee

Fore Coffee, an Indonesia-based coffee chain, has concluded its public offering, which was oversubscribed by over 200x and attracted more than 114,000 retail investors, according to a press release issued by the company.

It is set to debut on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on April 14, eyeing a share price of 188 rupiah (around US$0.01).

This comes as the IDX enforced a 30-minute trading halt on April 8, when the Jakarta Composite Index dropped by over 9% to its lowest level in years.

“The counterintuitive decision to proceed with the IPO during the lowest IDX Composite index market since the pandemic paid off,” said Willson Cuaca, Fore Coffee’s president commissioner, in the press release. Cuaca is also the co-founder and managing partner of East Ventures, one of the coffee chain’s investors.

The global IPO environment is set to weaken amid US President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, which are projected to cut Indonesia’s growth by 0.5 percentage points, according to the country’s finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati. The tariffs are paused for 90 days to make room for trade talks.

That said, Fore Coffee is more resistant to Indonesia’s economic situation due to its local roots.

“Fore Coffee’s IPO, which attracted a lot of investor interest, shows how an authentic product from a local startup can resonate strongly despite uncertainty in the capital market,” Cuaca said. 

The company issued around 1.9 billion new shares, comprising 21.1% of its total issued and fully paid-up capital. It is expected to raise around 353.4 billion rupiah (about US$21 million) in funds from the IPO.

Fore Coffee plans to use about US$16.3 million of the funds raised to expand its coffee chain network. It aims to open 140 new branches across Indonesia over the next two years.

Meanwhile, around US$3.6 million will be spent to grow its donut business by opening new outlets. The rest of the funds will be used as working capital.

Established in 2018, Fore Coffee now has more than 216 outlets in 43 Indonesian cities, as well as another outlet in Singapore.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 16,811.4 rupiah.