Astaga!com to offer its shares to public next year

JAKARTA (JP): Internet portal Astaga!com plans to offer shares to the public through the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX), following the introduction of a development board in the exchange which allows prospective start-ups to raise funds on the market.

Astaga!com president Andrew P. Hayek said on Thursday that the company would rather wait for the market to recover before offering shares to the public.

"Reasonably, it will be in the first quarter of next year. But if the market is extremely hot, it may be sooner. But a good guess is that it will be the first quarter of next year," he said.

Hayek, however, refused to say how many shares Astaga!com would offer to the public, and how much the shares would be sold at.

Initially, the company planned to list its shares on overseas markets, namely the over-the-counter Nasdaq in New York or on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

But with JSX's introduction of the development board, Astaga!com decided to float its shares on the JSX first, rather than going to foreign markets.

"For Astaga to make a listing here makes a lot of sense, because the brand is actually very powerful," Hayek said.

Nevertheless, Hayek did not rule out possibilities to list Astaga!com shares on overseas markets as initially planned.

Hayek said the company appointed Lehman Brothers as its financial advisor, and would appoint local investment banks as underwriters for its Jakarta listing.

He expressed optimism that investors would be receptive over the Astaga!com Jakarta listing, considering Astaga's "number one position" in Indonesia's Internet market.

Hayek said Astaga recorded an average of 680,000 page views per day, compared to about 200,000 page views booked by Detik.com and 180,000 by Kompas.com.

"I had a couple of conversations with investment bankers, and they are excited about Astaga's planned listing," he said.

He acknowledged that Astaga!com would not make a profit any time soon, but he noted that the company would break even by the end of next year.

Astaga!com was now focusing its efforts on building revenue streams for the company, after a massive expansion for the last six months, Hayek said.

One immediate source of income would come from advertising. Hayek noted that a number of American-based companies had committed to placing ads on the Astaga site.

"In the near future, you will see a lot more from Indonesian companies," he said.

Another source of income will come from franchising Astaga products, including clothing and credit cards. It plans to sell these products at stores and shopping malls.

"Advertising and franchising will be the primary sources of revenue for us," Hayek said.

The next source of income will be from its planned online mall, in which many storefronts will offer various products to Astaga visitors. Astaga will get a fee from transactions done at the online mall.

"We believe it (the online mall) will become a source of revenue, not enormous, but a source," he said.

Hayek said Astaga's costs would not rise any further. They will remain relatively the same, whether visitors increase or not, he said.

Hayek said Astaga would survive the tight competition and eventually become a profitable venture, with increasing revenues and relatively stable expenditures.

Meanwhile Myohdotcom Indonesia announced on Friday that it would sell 250 million new shares in its initial public offering next week.

The shares would be sold at Rp 150 each during the offering period scheduled for July 12-18, the company said, adding that the listing on the Surabaya Stock Exchange would be made on July 27.

The company said that about 45 percent of the IPO proceeds would be used to finance the expansion of its technology infrastructure, 25 percent for setting up a subsidiary, and the other 20 percent for working capital. (rid)