Kopitime.com to float shares

JAKARTA (JP): PT Kopitime Dot Com (Kopitime), an e-commerce portal company, will launch its initial public offering (IPO) in March this year in order to raise funds to finance its e-commerce expansion.

Kopitime's president Indrajaya P. Januar(center) said here on Thursday that it would sell 120 million shares, or 19.35 percent of its total holdings, to the public during an offer period to be held from March 12 to March 14.

He did not mention the price of the shares, which carry a par value of Rp 250 each.

Publicly listed PT Trimegah Securities and PT Danatama Makmur will act as lead underwriters for the company's IPO.

Indrajaya said that 50.59 percent of the money expected to be raised from the IPO would be allocated to e-commerce expansion.

"Approximately 31.91 percent will be used for strategic alliances with Asia Pacific's e-commerce marketplace companies, while the remaining 17.5 percent will be directed to marketing strategies and working capital," he said in a press briefing which was also attended by the company's chief commissioner Irman Gusman (right) and chief executive officer C.S. Seshadri

The company, which was established in 1981 as an advertising company and later expanded into IT services, has been running two e-commerce portal facilities since early last year. They include www.bizdunia.com for business to business, and www.Kopimal.com for business to consumer e-commerce.(03)