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Tag: Indonesia

  • Insurtech Startup to Grow Platform in Indonesia

    Insurtech Startup to Grow Platform in Indonesia

    It will use the funding raised on technology upgrades, growing its team, and branding to fuel its multi-channel strategy.

    Indonesia insurtech Qoala has successfully closed a $13.5 million Series A funding round, the largest raised by an Insurtech from Indonesia, the startup announced on Tuesday in a statement.

    The round was led by Centauri Fund, a $150 million growth-stage joint-venture between South Korea’s KB Financial Group and Telkom Indonesia. It also saw participation from new investors Sequoia India, Flourish Ventures, and Mirae Asset Management, which join existing investors Surge, MassMutual Ventures, Seedplus, Central Capital Ventura (Bank BCA fund), MDI Ventures.

    During the present crisis we are seeing an increased demand for innovative and scalable services to support the industry as physical contact restrictions are impacting traditional offline sales of insurance, said Qoala co-founder Tommy Martin.

    Qoala works with large-scale platform partners to drive awareness about insurance in Indonesia, where it has a low penetration rate among consumers. It also supports traditional offline insurance channels, which currently contribute to 99 percent of insurance premiums, to become digitally enabled through its app.

    Launched in 2019, Qoala processes more than 2 million policies per month as of April 2020. Its key partners include Tokopedia, Shopee, JD, Grab for merchants/Grabkios, MAP Group, PegiPegi (Traveloka), and Investree. Its portfolio serves five core industries: travel, fintech, consumables, logistics, and employee benefits.

    To build on its growth, Qoala said it would be hiring across teams, and plans to double its headcount to 300 over the next year.

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  • Owners Agree Lower Sale Price for Bank Permata

    Owners Agree Lower Sale Price for Bank Permata

    The two partners will lower the purchase price of the Indonesian bank to 1.63 times Permata’s shareholders’ equity as at March, from 1.77 times the equity.

    Standard Chartered and partner Astra International have agreed to sell their stake combined 89.1 percent stake in Bank Permata to Bangkok Bank at a reduced price if the sale closes before the end of June, Standard Chartered said on Monday.

    This would bring the total amount payable to each stakeholder to 17 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($1.13 billion), based on 1.63 times book value as at December 31, 2019.

    In December, Standard Chartered said it was selling its 44.56 percent stake in the Jakarta-based lender for $1.3 billion, which would be used to fund some of its restructuring over the next three years. Bangkok Bank also acquired a stake of the same size from Astra, a 50.1-per cent subsidiary of Singapore-listed Jardine Cycle & Carriage.

    Permata operates about 330 branches across 62 cities in Indonesia, where it is the country’s 12th-largest lender by assets.

    Bangkok Bank said the acquisition would help it diversify and grow away from its maturing home market. Indonesia is also one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies and has favourable demographics at a time of growing economic integration in Southeast Asia, it said.

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  • Indonesian retail sales down last February

    Indonesian retail sales down last February

    Indonesian retail sales declined by 0.8 percent year on year during February.

    The drop was brought about by a decline in demand for clothing, as well as a blanket downturn in recreational spending, according to the monthly Bank Indonesia survey.

    The sales decline occurred as the Indonesian administration was claiming zero cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus had been reported in the country. Indonesia announced its first confirmed case in March, and is currently approaching 3000 infections.

    Sales figures in the territory have been falling since last December, which yielded a 0.5 percent decline in Indonesian retail sales. Trading figures in January contracted 0.3 percent.

    The central bank’s survey predicted March Indonesian retail sales will contract further, with a year-on-year drop of 5.4 percent in key categories.

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  • Indonesia AirAsia’s growth halted due to coronavirus and economy

    Indonesia AirAsia’s growth halted due to coronavirus and economy

    Indonesia AirAsia has been forced to halt its growth plan for this year, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and economic challenges faced by Indonesia.

    The plan for 2020 was for the low-cost carrier to increase its market share by adding three new aircraft and launching new services, having recorded a 28% growth in revenue for 2019 as compared to 2018, says parent company AirAsia Indonesia.

    The viral outbreak has led to travel restrictions imposed by neighboring countries and is affecting the demand for domestic and international air travel. AirAsia Indonesia says that Indonesia’s “economic situation has become more challenging”, noting that the exchange rate for rupiah against the dollar is now at more than Rp16,000 ($0.97), and it continues to fluctuate.

    “By considering these factors carefully and deeply, the company is forced to suspend international and domestic flights until the situation improves, and demand for air travel picks up. The measure will certainly have a significant influence on the company’s operating and financial performance in the first half of 2020,” says AirAsia Indonesia.

    Indonesia AirAsia suspended operations on 1 April. Domestic flights are suspended until 21 April and international flights until 17 May.

    Meanwhile, AirAsia Indonesia’s plan to resume trading on Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) by offering new shares to the public was also affected, although it did not offer any other details.

    It was suspended from trading in August 2019 for not complying with BEI’s requirement for a company to have at least 7.5% of its paid-in capital available as free float in order to remain listed. As of 29 February, it only had 1.6% of shares available for trade.

    AirAsia Indonesia’s priority for the group over the next six months is to reduce its operating cost base by renegotiating with suppliers and key stakeholders, and to ensure that it can continue to operate during this period, it says. This will then be followed by working to “restore” its finances after the outbreak is declared over.

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  • Over 320,000 jobs in Asia-Pacific travel-retail industry under threat

    Over 320,000 jobs in Asia-Pacific travel-retail industry under threat

    Governments across Asia Pacific are being urged to protect more than 320,000 duty-free and travel-retail industry jobs at risk during the coronavirus pandemic.

    The Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association claims that the jobs in the US$36 billion industry may be overlooked by politicians devising financial rescue measures to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic. It is asking governments to support the industry along with airlines, airports and maritime businesses.

    In a special report, the association outlines the industry’s almost $15 billion contribution to GDP across Asia Pacific.

    “Airport retail and commercial services, including food and beverage, constitute a crucial business sector providing up to 60 percent vital commercial income for airport owners, outpacing aeronautical revenue streams,” read a statement issued by the association.

    “It is the most significant direct contributor to the investment in Asia-Pacific’s aviation infrastructure and ongoing development of world-class national gateways, the region’s hubs to the world.”

    “The dynamics of duty-free and travel retailing are intrinsically linked to the aviation and maritime industries and its viability is entirely dependent on the return in passenger traffic,” said association president Grant Fleming.

    “This means 320,000 jobs are at risk that could be safeguarded if governments extend financial support packages to the industry.”

  • Indonesian retail bussineses starts shutting down as coronavirus crisis gets worse

    Indonesian retail bussineses starts shutting down as coronavirus crisis gets worse

    The Indonesian retail sector has begun to shut down in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, with shopping centers and retail chains voluntarily closing the doors to non-essential categories.

    More than 30 shopping malls have been shut down in the country despite no order from authorities. Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust (LMIRT) has temporarily closed 11 out of 23 shopping malls in the Greater Jakarta region, Bandung and Bali.

    According to LMIRT, the company will close its malls until April 9 and waive rent for all affected tenants. Essential services including supermarkets and pharmacies remain open during the shutdown.

    Other shopping malls across Jakarta closed include Senayan City, Plaza Indonesia, Aeon Malls, Mall of Indonesia and Lotte Shopping Avenue.

    Meanwhile, McDonald’s Indonesia will cease dine-in services across the country for two weeks starting from April 1. The company said on its social media channels that it still offers to take away, drive-through and home delivery services.

    As Indonesian retail continues to wind down, many local restaurants have also closed their doors but continue to operate through third-party apps like Gojek and Grab.

    Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo is among the latest retailers to temporarily close their stores in Indonesia.

    As of today, Indonesia has confirmed 1414 positive cases of Covid-19 including 122 deaths and 75 recovered.

  • Axa Mandiri Lays Out Plans to Grow Premium Income

    Axa Mandiri Lays Out Plans to Grow Premium Income

    Axa Mandiri Financial Services, one of Indonesia’s major insurance companies, expects to maintain double-digit growth in premium income this year, by tapping into the large customer base of its parent company, Bank Mandiri.

    Axa Mandiri Financial Services (Axa Mandiri)’s president director Handojo G. Kusuma said that the insurer would market its products more intensively to customers of Bank Mandiri, which has one of the largest customer bases in the country.

    We hope to book double-digit growth in premium income by tailoring insurance products to the special needs of Bank Mandiri customers, said Kusuma, who was quoted in the «Jakarta Post» (behind paywall).

    Despite having worked together with Bank Mandiri for many years, Axa Mandiri’s penetration among the bank’s clients was still below optimal levels, he noted.

    To realize the targeted double-digit growth in premium income, Axa Mandiri did a data analytics study on Bank Mandiri’s market segmentation. «By understanding the needs of each segment better, we will be able to improve upselling and cross-selling,» Kusuma added.

    To effectively market to the millennials, the company would study the behavior and characteristics of customers in that segment and offer an affordable and easy-to-understand retail package that would be relevant and convenient for them, Handojo explained.

    For the growing halal market, the company planned to expand its portfolio of sharia-compliant products to between 20 percent and 25 percent of its business in the upcoming year from 4 to 5 percent at present.

    If we look at the market share potential, we can say that 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslims, hence we will continue to grow our sharia business, said Axa Mandiri sales director Henky Oktavianus.

    He added that the company was still studying the sharia market segmentation of its sister company, Bank Syariah Mandiri, to understand what products to offer its clients and how best to sell them.

    Axa Mandiri booked a gross premium income of 9.5 trillion rupiahs ($698.5 million) in 2019, an increase of 11 percent from 8.59 trillion rupiahs in 2018. Net investment touched 668 billion rupiahs in 2019, following a deficit of 1.68 trillion rupiahs in 2018.

    As a result, revenue totaled Rp 10.74 trillion in 2019, a 44 percent year-on-year increase. Net profit, therefore, rose 6 percent to  1 trillion rupiahs in 2019.

    Axa Mandiri is jointly owned by Bank Mandiri, which has a 51 percent stake, and Axa Group’s National Mutual International, which holds 49 percent.

  • Axa Mandiri Lays Out Plans to Grow Premium Income

    Axa Mandiri Lays Out Plans to Grow Premium Income

    Axa Mandiri Financial Services, one of Indonesia’s major insurance companies, expects to maintain double-digit growth in premium income this year, by tapping into the large customer base of its parent company, Bank Mandiri.

    Axa Mandiri Financial Services (Axa Mandiri)’s president director Handojo G. Kusuma said that the insurer would market its products more intensively to customers of Bank Mandiri, which has one of the largest customer bases in the country.

    We hope to book double-digit growth in premium income by tailoring insurance products to the special needs of Bank Mandiri customers,» said Kusuma, who was quoted.

    Despite having worked together with Bank Mandiri for many years, Axa Mandiri’s penetration among the bank’s clients was still below optimal levels, he noted.

    To realize the targeted double-digit growth in premium income, Axa Mandiri did a data analytics study on Bank Mandiri’s market segmentation. «By understanding the needs of each segment better, we will be able to improve upselling and cross-selling,» Kusuma added.

    To effectively market to the millennials, the company would study the behavior and characteristics of customers in that segment and offer an affordable and easy-to-understand retail package that would be relevant and convenient for them, Handojo explained.

    For the growing halal market, the company planned to expand its portfolio of sharia-compliant products to between 20 percent and 25 percent of its business in the upcoming year from 4 to 5 percent at present.

    If we look at the market share potential, we can say that 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslims, [hence] we will continue to grow our sharia business, said Axa Mandiri sales director Henky Oktavianus.

    He added that the company was still studying the sharia market segmentation of its sister company, Bank Syariah Mandiri, to understand what products to offer its clients and how best to sell them.

    Axa Mandiri booked a gross premium income of 9.5 trillion rupiahs ($698.5 million) in 2019, an increase of 11 percent from 8.59 trillion rupiahs in 2018. Net investment touched 668 billion rupiahs in 2019, following a deficit of 1.68 trillion rupiahs in 2018.

    As a result, revenue totaled Rp 10.74 trillion in 2019, a 44 percent year-on-year increase. Net profit, therefore, rose 6 percent to  1 trillion rupiahs in 2019.

    Axa Mandiri is jointly owned by Bank Mandiri, which has a 51 percent stake, and Axa Group’s National Mutual International, which holds 49 percent.

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  • Indonesian beauty brand Natasha Skincare to launch in Malaysia

    Indonesian beauty brand Natasha Skincare to launch in Malaysia

    Indonesian beauty brand Natasha Skincare to launch in Malaysia

    Indonesian beauty brand Natasha Skincare is to launch in Malaysia after forming a local joint venture with JCG Investment.

    The new company, Natasha Beverly, will launch this month in Kuala Lumpur’s trendy Bangsar, opening a four-story facility housing a medical aesthetic clinic, medi-spa, chiropractor and physiotherapy services. It will be the sole distributor for Natasha products in Malaysia and Singapore.

    Currently, among the leading beauty brands in Indonesia, where it has more than 100 outlets, Natasha Beverly will sell natural science beauty treatments and products for teenagers, men and women. It is known in its home market for its Halal-certified products.

    JCG’s executive director and CEO Ang Kok Huan says bringing the brand to Malaysia is part of a strategy to grow and expand its existing medical aesthetics, cosmetic surgery, healthcare and wellness businesses.

    “We have been proactively looking for strategic partners and business opportunities to further deepen our group’s core businesses and expand our geographical reach,” he said. “Last year we welcomed Malaysia-based Beverly Wilshire Medical Group led by its executive chairman Dato Francis Ng; and now we have inked our relationship with Natasha – the leading beauty brand in Indonesia.

    “We look forward to working with more like-minded partners to build our Group into a leading medical aesthetics, cosmetic surgery, healthcare and wellness brand in the region.”

    In the long term, doctors and operators working for the business will hold 10 per cent of the company’s shares.

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  • Starbucks Indonesia opens first community store

    Starbucks Indonesia opens first community store

    Starbucks Indonesia has opened its first community store, aiming to support local children by funding scholarships through a portion of sales.

    Located in the Tanah Abang neighborhood in Jakarta, the store partners with two local NGOs, Yayasan Sahabat Anak and the Indonesian Street Children Organization (ISCO).

    “Starbucks is committed to using our scale and brand reputation as a force for good,” said Anthony Cottan, director, Starbucks Indonesia, at PT Sari Coffee Indonesia. “Since opening our first store in 2002, we’ve invested in creating long-term positive social impact across Indonesia, growing our community involvement alongside our businesses.”

    Occupying a 250sqm area and spanning four floors, the Starbucks Indonesia community store provides space for workshops and classrooms, and undertakes “social impact initiatives”. Most of its staff come from the Tanah Abang area, making them representative of the community, the company said in a statement.

    “One of the most important contributions Starbucks can make in return is serving as a catalyst for positive change in the communities we serve,” said Sara Trilling, senior VP, and president of Starbucks Asia Pacific. “Over the years, we’ve continued to expand the number of community stores in the region including in Thailand, South Korea, and now Indonesia.”

    Chairman of Yayasan Sahabat Anak, Dian Novita Elfrida, said with the support of Starbucks, local children will be given more opportunities for better education.

    Starbucks Indonesia operates more than 430 outlets countrywide.

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  • Indonesian retail sales fell in December

    Indonesian retail sales fell in December

    Indonesian retail sales have witnessed a downturn despite the festive season.

    According to a survey conducted by Bank Indonesia, the retail sales fell 0.5 percent in December compared to year on year.

    The survey predicted January retail sales will stay weak. Key retail sectors, including fashion and food & beverage, will drop 3.1 percent on an annual basis.

    Indonesian retail sales in November rose by 1.3 percent, marking the fifth consecutive month of growth.

  • OUE buys Indonesia’s Maxx coffee chain

    OUE buys Indonesia’s Maxx coffee chain

    Singapore investment firm OUE has acquired a majority stake in the parent of Indonesia’s Maxx coffee chain, which also operates in Singapore.

    According to the agreement, OUE’s wholly-owned subsidiary Oddish Ventures will buy an 88.43-per-cent stake, worth US$23.1 million from two companies – Inti Anugerah Pratama and Ciptadana Capital – which own 45.64 percent and 42.79 percent of the Maxx Coffee Prima’s issued shares respectively.

    OUE reported that the acquisition was valued based on various factors, including the high barrier of entry into the Indonesia food-and-beverage market, the opportunity for additional revenue stream through franchising, and Maxx Coffee’s access to prime retail locations in Indonesia.

    With the acquisition, OUE hopes to scale up and optimize its existing food-and-beverage portfolio, the company said in a statement.

    Founded in 2015, Maxx Coffee has more than 75 outlets in Indonesia and Singapore.

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  • % Arabica expands in Indonesia

    % Arabica expands in Indonesia

    Japanese coffee chain % Arabica is launching four locations in Indonesia.

    The stores, scheduled to open in Jakarta and Bali next month, are the result of three years’ planning and were designed by German architect Alexis Dornier.

    According to an Instagram post by the company’s Indonesia partner, the first store to open will be at District 8, a mixed-use development in SCBD, South Jakarta, followed by one in Central Park, West Jakarta and one in Bali’s Seminyak Village the following month. The last of the first four stores, which is set to open in Ubud in May, will be % Arabica’s Indonesian flagship.

    % Arabica now operates 56 outlets in 13 countries since first opening in Kyoto in 2014. The chain has two stores in the Philippines, three in Singapore, and one in Cambodia, with a Bangkok store expected to launch shortly as well as new outlets in Malaysia and Vietnam on the horizon.

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  • Amorepacific launching Etude in Indonesia

    Amorepacific launching Etude in Indonesia

    South Korean beauty company Amorepacific Group is set to launch the Etude brand in Indonesia.

    The firm has partnered with local lifestyle retailer PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (MAP) to boost the growth of its business in the territory.

    MAP plans to expand Amorepacific’s presence beyond Jakarta and across Bali, Surabaya and Bandung, giving more local customers better accessibility to the Etude brand, as well as Amorepacific’s other global brands such as Sulwhasoo, Laneige and Innisfree.

    “We are looking forward to working with MAP, the largest retailer in Indonesia to unlock the enormous potential the country has to offer,” said Amorepacific Group president Dong-hyun Bae.

    “With their expertise in retail, MAP and Amorepacific’s global brands are expected to create a great synergy and thereby provide the best quality service to the customers in Indonesia.”

  • Indosat Ooredoo provides relief to employees affected by Jakarta floods

    Indosat Ooredoo provides relief to employees affected by Jakarta floods

    The Indonesia telco giant organized a number of programs to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of employees and their families.

    Just to name a few, the objectives of this campaign would be to register and identify all employees affected by the floods, get in touch with employees believed to be impacted and assist in emergency logistics to medical centers or provide evacuation assistance if necessary.

    According to the Communication and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate, he said that power cuts had occurred in response to the disaster. He said that “most customers were able to use cellular services despite power cuts because the BTSs had backup power and providers deployed mobile backup power and portable generators.”

    Jakarta is currently experiencing one of the worst periods of heavy rainfall and flooding in recent years.

    Local reports state that downpours began last Tuesday and continued into the next day, essentially flooding the city and rendering large areas of the city underwater, causing communication disruptions and endangering lives, with at least 53 people already reported dead.

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