Weekly News Wrap: Lawson mulls supermarket chain IPO; GoTo soars 23% in market debut
And Zilingo suspends its CEO amidst a probe on its accounting practices.
From Reuters:
Japanese convenience store operator Lawson is considering taking wholly owned supermarket chain Seijo Ishii public, it said on Tuesday.
The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that Lawson was planning an initial public offering (IPO) for Seijo Ishii by the 2023 financial year, potentially valuing the business at more than $1.59b (JPY200b).
A Lawson spokesperson, however, said the company is considering a listing of the supermarket business but a final decision has not been made, including specifics on the size or timing.
Lawson is one of Japan’s biggest convenience store chains, with more than 14,500 locations competing with 7-Eleven and FamilyMart. It is 50% owned by trading company Mitsubishi and also has thousands of stores in mainland China.
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From Reuters:
GoTo soared as much as 23% in its market debut after Indonesia’s largest tech company raised $1.1b in a keenly watched initial public offering (IPO), fuelling expectations of more offerings to come from the sector in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
The IPO is the world’s fifth-largest this year, Refinitiv data showed, and went forward despite many IPOs across the globe being pulled due to the Russia-Ukraine war and rising interest rates.
GoTo Gojek Tokopedia was formed by last year’s merger of ride hailing-to-payments company Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia, with its businesses straddling millions of small and mid-sized firms across the archipelago.
“There was no perfect timing for this IPO, but our focus was on Indonesia, with a local investor audience,” GoTo’s CEO Andre Soelistyo, a former private equity banker who steered Gojek’s push into consumer services, told reporters.
GoTo’s shares rose as high as 416 rupiah minutes after the start of trade, compared with the 338 rupiah IPO price. Sold only to investors in Indonesia, unlike most other domestic offerings, the shares ended at 382 rupiah, up 13%.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/goto-listing-idCNL2N2W9035
From Bloomberg:
Zilingo, one of Singapore’s highest-profile startups, has suspended chief executive officer Ankiti Bose after an effort to raise new funding led to questions about the company’s accounting, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company, which supplies technology to apparel merchants and factories, had been trying to raise $150m to $200m with help from Goldman Sachs when investors began to question its finances as part of the due diligence process, said the people, asking not to be identified. The talks, which could have boosted Zilingo’s valuation to more than $1b, stalled, they said.
The startup’s investors, which include Temasek and Sequoia Capital India, have started an investigation into the financial practices, the people said. Zilingo’s auditor raised questions about its accounting, they said.
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