JAKARTA – Indonesia’s biggest telecommunications company Telkom plans to launch an IPO for its infrastructure and data tower unit Mitratel by the fourth quarter of this year as part of broader restructuring plans for the overall business, its CEO said.
While no firm valuation target has been set for the initial public offering of PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel), chief executive Ririek Adriansyah said in an interview it would “probably be not far” from US$1 billion (RM4.15 billion).
The head of the US$24 billion state-controlled group said it is exploring other potential spin-offs for units outside its core business and holding talks with partners, including private equity firms.
“Being a telco is getting more limited in terms of growth,” Adriansyah said, adding that the group is building out its digital businesses, with an expansion into data centres and cloud services.
“We have developed private cloud services for clients like the government.”
Telkom’s wireless network provider unit, Telkomsel, claims to have more than 170 million customers in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, and has increased partnerships in content, entertainment and gaming, including a deal with Disney’s streaming service Disney+ Hotstar, which launched in Indonesia in August last year.
“The biggest challenge for us is low data usage”, the CEO said. “The reception (for Disney+) has been quite strong.”
The company, which appointed the co-founder of online retailer Bukalapak as digital director last year, is also targeting more business-to-business clients, including in e-commerce, he said, and ramping up strategic technology investments.
Telkom’s investment arm, MDI Ventures, which holds more than US$790 million in assets, has taken stakes in a dozen start-ups, including Southeast Asian fintech firm FinAccel, which said last month it would go public in the United States through a merger with a blank-cheque firm that values the firm at US$2.5 billion.
Separately, Telkomsel announced in May it had invested an additional US$300 million in ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek, which merged this year with e-commerce company Tokopedia, to create Indonesia’s largest tech group and is targeting a dual listing in 2022. – Reuters, September 16, 2021
