JAKARTA : Two months after its merger with e-commerce giant Tokopedia, ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek has announced it will quit the Thai market and begin focusing on two markets where it has gained the upper hand: Singapore and Vietnam.

The Jakarta-based firm has sold its Thai business to Malaysian budget carrier Air Asia Group in a stock swap, an exchange that will give Gojek a 4.76 per cent stake in the airline’s lifestyle app, AirAsia SuperApp.

In a joint appearance with Gojek chief executive officer (CEO) Kevin Aluwi on Wednesday (July 7) to announce the move, AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes said his company would acquire Gojek's business in return for US$50mil worth of shares in AirAsia SuperApp, valuing the division at around $1 billion.

AirAsia SuperApp’s value is greater than the Covid-19-hit budget carrier’s current market value of $868 million.

The app offers travel, e-commerce and financial services and is one of three companies under the AirAsia Digital group. The others are logistics venture Teleport and fintech firm BigPay.

Fernandes said that by acquiring Gojek’s Thai business, the company would be able to “turbo-charge” its ambitions in the region.

“I am thrilled that we can short-circuit this through the acquisition of Gojek. When setting up AirAsia, I learned from the success of pioneers like Southwest Airlines. Gojek is one of those pioneers, one of the most successful in Southeast Asia, ” Fernandes said at a press briefing.

Gojek entered the Thai market in February 2019 when it formed a joint venture with Thai startup Get to mount a two-wheeled challenge to existing players in the country’s growing food delivery market.

In September of last year, Gojek's Thai business entered a new phase by dropping the Get brand and app. Gojek had more than 50, 000 drivers and 30, 000 merchants in Thailand at the time of the AirAsia acquisition.

Gojek's Thai business, which also included ride-hailing and payments, lagged behind market leader Grab, which covers more than 50 per cent of the country’s food delivery business.

Gojek’s Thai business was its smallest overseas operation and made losses in 2019 and 2020, according to accounts provided with the deal announcement.

Following its exit from Thailand, Gojek will focus on increasing investment in Vietnam and Singapore after the deal is complete, Kevin said during the joint press conference.

"We looked at where we could really commit resources in order to ensure that our teams have a path toward market leadership, and we see that in Vietnam and Singapore, and hence our commitment there is as strong if not stronger than ever, " Kevin told reporters.

When asked if the decision to leave the Thai market was connected to the upcoming IPO, Kevin said the two were unrelated.

Gojek's plans for an initial public offering were proceeding, he said, though the focus on the two markets was not directly related to its IPO pursuits. The planned IPO would be an important milestone for Gojek and its holding company GoTo, which was formed through the merger of Gojek and Tokopedia, now Indonesia’s highest-valued start-up at an estimated US$18 billion.

Indonesian authorities are close to finalising a sweeping revision of public listing rules, paving the way for the country's start-up giants, from Bukalapak.com to GoTo, to go public from August onward.

Authorities are finalising details of new regulations that will allow firms to go public with multiple classes of shares carrying different voting rights, Bloomberg reported.

They will also relax curbs on loss-making firms, among other changes.

Regarding Gojek’s plan for other markets in the region, Kevin said that in the coming weeks, the company would roll out car-hailing services, cashless payments and more food-delivery features.

In Singapore, where Gojek has become the most downloaded free app on both iOs and Android, the company recently rolled out its taxi service GoTaxi.

"The two countries will be our focus in the foreseeable future, " Kevin said.

 - ANN