Although its H1 2022 financial results were?boosted by fintech performance,?GoTo Group reported a surge in losses in November. Pre-IPO shareholders chose not to proceed with the secondary offering

GoTo Lost 70% of Valuation Since IPO. Source: pixabay.com

Indonesian tech giant?GoTo Group has lost 68.5% of its IPO valuation of 400 trillion rupiah ($28 billion) registered in April. The Group’s post-IPO selloff illustrates the worst performance among 11 tech and internet companies that raised over $500 million in inaugural share sales this year.

GoTo Group stemmed from the merger of?Indonesia’s two largest tech companies: ride-hailing giant Gojek and e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia. The $18 billion acquisition was the largest financial deal in Indonesian history.?

Although operating in a few different realms, the?biggest GoTo revenue source is its fintech businesses. As the financial services arm of GoTo Group, GoTo Financial provides payment and PaaS services such as GoPay, GoBiz, GoBiz Plus, GoStore, Midtrans, Moka, and Selly.

In April, the company went public, securing a $28 billion valuation. Its early backers included major household names e.g. SoftBank and Alibaba. They agreed to an eight-month lock-up period to support GoTo’s stock price following its IPO.

Reasons for poor performance

Although the first half of the year fuelled some optimism for GoTo, investors lost faith in the business prospects as fears mounted that early supporters?would sell stakes when a lock-up period ended this week.

The?Indonesian tech giant isn’t profitable so far despite?its successful integration of GoPay which has started reaping rewards. The company has shrunk its third-quarter losses with cost cuts and announced it would be laying off 12% of its workforce (about 3,000 jobs). Nevertheless, its losses piled up. In November,?GoTo’s nine-month accumulated losses surged from 11.58 trillion rupiah to 20.32 trillion rupiah year on year.?

GoTo shares soared 13% on their first day of trade in April. After that, its stock has been steadily falling. The stock abruptly plummeted as the lock-up deadline was getting nearer. Several other Asian tech companies listed over the past 18 months?saw their shares plunge once early investors were allowed to sell stakes following IPO.

GoTo has tried to mitigate the effect, negotiating an orderly sale with pre-IPO shareholders and exploring a coordinated secondary offering of their shares. However, that was fruitless. GoTo shareholders considering the sale option decided not to proceed with the secondary offering at this time.

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