<article>Indonesian media and technology company Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek Group) has acquired a minority stake in Southeast Asian tech giant Grab&#8217;s Indonesia unit, DealStreetAsia can confirm.</article>

Indonesian media and technology company Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek Group) has acquired a minority stake in Southeast Asian tech giant Grab&#8217;s Indonesia unit, DealStreetAsia can confirm.
Emtek, which is the biggest shareholder in Indonesia’s e-commerce major Bukalapak and digital wallet DANA, completed a transaction on April 8 that gave it a 2.8% stake in PT Grab Teknologi Indonesia, formerly known as PT Solusi Transportasi Indonesia, according to corporate filings.
The transaction follows Grab’s <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/grab-invests-in-emtek-group-236224/">acquisition of a 4.6% stake in Emtek Group</a> in March, when the latter raised 9.3 trillion rupiah ($635 million) through the issue of new shares. Other investors that participated in the private placement include South Korea’s NAVER Corp, Ashmore Asset Management Indonesia and Manulife Aset Manajemen Indonesia.
The deepening Grab-Emtek alliance goes beyond these cross-holdings.
The Sariaatmadja family, which holds the single largest stake in Emtek at nearly 23%, is also participating in a private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal worth over $4 billion as part of Grab&#8217;s merger with Nasdaq-listed blank-cheque company Altimeter Growth. The merger, which is the biggest SPAC deal ever, values the ride-hailing company at around $39.6 billion.
These transactions are also seen as a precursor to a deal in the payments space. According to multiple sources, Emtek is interested in buying Tokopedia&#8217;s stake in Indonesian payments firm OVO, which is partly owned by Grab.
Last week, Tokopedia announced its merger with Gojek, which owns OVO rival GoPay, to form GoTo Group. Since Bank Indonesia rules bar a single entity from holding a controlling stake in more than one digital wallet in the country, GoTo cannot own both GoPay and OVO.
GoTo president Patrick Cao told a media briefing last week that Tokopedia was exploring options for OVO, including divesting its stake.
According to corporate filings accessed by DealStreetAsia in October 2020, Grab holds a 39.2% stake in OVO’s parent firm Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa through a subsidiary. Another 5% of Bumi is owned by PT Ide Teknologi Indonesia, which is equally owned by Albert Lucius and Ignatius Agung Nugroho, the co-founders of Indonesian fintech firm Kudo. Grab had fully acquired Kudo in 2017.
Meanwhile, Tokopedia owns a 36.1% stake in Bumi through a wholly-owned subsidiary. Its co-founders, Leontinus Alpha Edison and William Tanuwijaya, own another 5% stake in Bumi through PT Wahana Innovasi Lestari that was acquired from Grab in Feb 2020.
Grab&#8217;s partnership with Tokopedia for OVO was necessitated by Bank Indonesia regulation mandating a local entity to own a majority stake in an e-wallet. With Tokopedia eyeing the exit route, Singapore-headquartered Grab needs another local partner.
&#8220;Several options are being discussed for OVO after the GoTo development. One of the options is Emtek buying a controlling stake in OVO. But nothing is done yet. Any deal related to OVO will take another 2-3 months,&#8221; said a source aware of the negotiations.
OVO has previously been reported to be in talks with Emtek-owned DANA, in which Ant Group also holds a stake, for a merger.
DealStreetAsia has learnt that Emtek has transferred a 6% stake in DANA to an affiliate, PT Selaras Teknologi Jaya. Emtek did not respond to a query regarding the divestment.
Responding to a news report pointing to a link between the 4.6% stake acquisition by Grab and the OVO-DANA merger in an April stock exchange filing, Emtek termed reports of the merger as &#8220;speculation&#8221; and said there was no link with the Grab investment.
The statement to IDX by Emtek corporate secretary Titi Maria Rusli added that a closer partnership between Grab and Emtek would “create opportunities to invest in existing businesses as well as new businesses that intersect with the company and Grab’s interest.&#8221;

Emtek Group buys minority stake in Grab's Indonesia unit in sign of deepening alliance

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