Indonesian e-commerce site Blibli announced the acquisition of online travel agent Tiket.com at a joint event in Jakarta on Thursday. The firm backed by Indonesian tobacco conglomerate Djarum said it was a 100 percent takeover, but did not reveal financial details of the deal.
After the acquisition, George Hendrata – the Business Development Director at Djarum will take over as Tiket’s new CEO. He specializes in starting greenfield companies in turnaround or restructuring situations and is also currently the Chairman of BJM, one of the world’s largest specialty paper companies.
Both companies will continue to maintain its own brand, though Blibli will support Tiket.com with inventory, sales programme, promotions, social media penetration, and human resource.
Tiket’s Co-founder and Chief Communications Officer Gaery Undarsa explained that the acquisition was funded through Blibli’s internal source for business development. The process has also begun since five months ago.
“We see that the acquisition is going to open up great opportunities for Tiket.com to grow exponentially … Looking at the great potential and similarity in culture and business vision, we are so excited to join the Blibli family,” Undarsa said.
Blibli also noted up the possibility to expand into another product line, though it will focus on developing the two e-commerce platforms and fast-track their growth in the travel industry.
Founded in 2011, Tiket.com is a popular ticket booking site that provides flights, train tickets, hotels, car rentals, and concert tickets. The company has only so far raised a single seed funding round reportedly from an individual who is related to the Emtek Group family.
Tiket was co-founded by Natali Ardianto, Wenas Agusetiawan, Dimas Surya Yaputra, and Mikhael Gaery Undarsa. The company claims to have exceed IDR 1 trillion (US$75 million) annual sales.
Also founded in 2011, Blibli is an e-commerce site with a diverse range of products categories from electronic goods to fashion. It began branching out into travel at the end of last year through the launch of Blibli Travel.
With data revealing the continuous growth of online purchase in the category, Blibli has reportedly cited travel as one of the categories that it would like to focus on. This acquisition was intended to fast-track growth in the segment.
Blibli CEO Kusumo Martanto expects 2.5 times organic and inorganic growth in the second semester of 2017.
“Tiket.com has a great track record in the business where it was able to grow in such a short time into one of the largest OTA in Indonesia,” Martanto said.
