Publicly-listed Indonesia Transport & Infrastructure (IATA) is planning to acquire a majority stake in homegrown ride-hailing company Anterin for an unspecified amount, the former announced on Wednesday.
In a filing to the Indonesia Stock Exchange, IATA, which is affiliated with local media conglomerate MNC, said it has signed a binding term sheet to acquire Anterin Digital Nusantara.
“IATA chooses Anterin because of its vision. Anterin is created to make changes in current ride-hailing operation,” IATA vice president director Wishnu Handoyono said in a statement.
The Anterin acquisition is subject to due diligence by IATA, which is targeting to close the transaction by the end of February.
IATA is an aircraft charter provider, which caters to companies in the onshore and offshore gas and mining industries across the archipelago and Southeast Asia.
Anterin started as a logistics company in 2016 before venturing into ride-hailing business a year later. The firm now claims to have more than 300,000 registered drivers, 530,000 customers and operations in 51 cities across Indonesia.
Anterin now plans to venture beyond ride-hailing and goods delivery to foray into the taxi service business, food delivery, shuttle, rental, and helicopter taxi service.
According to IATA, the difference between Anterin and other ride-hailing providers is the way Anterin treats its drivers. The ride-hailer does not charge its drivers a commission on each transaction but offers a monthly subscription system.
In an interview with DealStreetAsia late last year, Anterin CEO Imron Hamzah pointed out that the firm’s drivers only need to pay 150,000 rupiah ($10.55) per month as a subscription fee and do not need to give a commission fee to the company.
“We are concentrating on a niche market, which is not captured by other ride-hailing players. We are not direct competitors because we operate a different system and business model,” Hamzah had then said.
With Anterin now backed by a large corporation, the firm might now have ammunition to rival ride-hailing firm giants Grab and Gojek. Gojek, which is valued at around $10 billion, counts Google, Tencent Holdings and JD.com among its investors.
Meanwhile, Singapore-headquartered Grab was last valued at $14 billion and is backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, Toyota, Microsoft, and Booking Holdings.
Aside from Anterin and the two dominant players Grab and Gojek, the local ride-hailing market has seen the entry of other smaller contenders, including homegrown KlikGo and Bonceng Asia Trans, Malaysia-based ride-hailing company BitCar’s local unit, Russian ride-hailing app Maxim, and Vietnam-based FastGo.