Indonesia’s largest tech company GoTo Group is in talks with its major owners for a controlled sale of roughly US$1 billion ($1.42 billion) of their stakes, aiming to avoid a potential stock crash when a lock-up on their holdings ends next month.
The ride-hailing and e-commerce provider is gauging the interest of early backers including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and SoftBank Group Corp. for a managed sale of some of their shares to new investors, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan is part of an effort to prevent a potential drop in GoTo stock price that could occur if many investors sell shares when a lock-up period expires on Nov 30, the people said.
GoTo has also held discussions with some investors to get them to commit to holding their shares for a further period of as long as six months, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The Jakarta-based company is in the early stages of talks with the investors and the price levels for any deals are subject to negotiations, the people said. Deliberations are ongoing and GoTo hasn’t made any final decisions, they said.
