The family of Indonesian billionaire Martua Sitorus, the co-founder of the world’s biggest palm oil trader Wilmar International, is the controlling shareholder in ShopeePay, the Indonesian e-payment arm of Singapore-based Sea Ltd, showed an examination of the latest corporate filings in the country by DealStreetAsia.
While Sea’s partnership with the Sitorus family is, in part, to comply with Bank Indonesia’s 51% domestic ownership requirement for e-money licence holders, the ties with an influential, well-networked family is also an important factor for Sea in achieving its fintech ambitions in Indonesia, the largest and the most complex consumer market in Southeast Asia.