Bank Sinarmas Cancels Investing in DANA

PT Bank Sinarmas Tbk (IDX: BSIM) has canceled its investment in the DANA digital wallet platform. Delivered in an information disclosure on the IDX on June 10, Bank Sinarmas stated that it was no longer a potential investor in DANA.

Following up on reports related to the investment plan on March 2, 2022, Bank Sinarmas President Director Frenky Tirtowijoyo said, there was a change in the plan to share ownership in PT Espay Debit Indonesia Koe (DANA) through PT Elang Andalan Nusantara (EAN). Based on an agreement with potential investors, Bank Sinarmas resigned as one of the potential investors.

"There is no impact on operational activities, law, financial condition, or business continuity of issuers or public companies," said the information disclosure on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

As is known, the Sinarmas Group through Bank Sinarmas is reported to be investing in DANA worth $25 million or around Rp. 368 billion last March. Previously, this conglomerate company through another subsidiary, namely PT Dian Swastika Sentosa Tbk had signed $200 million investment deal or more than Rp2,8 trillion to PT Elang Andalan Nusantara which was signed in February 2022.

This investment plan is said to be part of the digital business development collaboration between the two companies, and can have a positive impact on the development of the company's digital ecosystem.

Joint venture

Finally, the ownership of DANA shares is controlled by Elang Andalan Nusantara. For information, PT Elang Andalan Nusantara is a joint venture company (j) which was founded by EMTEK PT Kreatif Media Karya (KMK) and Alibaba through API Investment Ltd with 55% and 45% ownership, respectively.

Since April 2021, EMTEK is no longer the controlling shareholder at Elang Andalan Nusantara as the controlling parent of DANA. EMTEK released 6% of Elang Andalan Nusantara's shares to an undisclosed third party for Rp76 billion. Now EMTEK only holds 49% stake in Elang Andalan Nusantara.

Adopt digital wallet

If mapped, the Indonesian digital wallet market is controlled by at least five big players. Referring to the report NeuroSensum In the November 2020-January 2021 period, ShopeePay was recorded as the leader of the digital wallet market with a 68% share, followed by OVO (62%), DANA (54%), GoPay (53%), and LinkAja (23%).

One of the main reasons ShopeePay is crawling fast is the ease of doing transactions considering that it is integrated in Shopee, not as a separate application. ShopeePay itself has only been operating for a year at that time compared to other incumbent players who have been around for a long time

In our records, digital wallet players in Indonesia have their own affiliations with strong ecosystems. For example, GoPay in the ecosystem Gojek, Tokopedia, and Bank Jago. ShopeePay with Shopee and Seabank. OVO with Grab and is still one of the most used payment options on Tokopedia.

Meanwhile, DANA is affiliated with Bukalapak. Based on the latest data, DANA now has 5.000 partners online merchant, with 100 million users. DANA said it had pocketed more than 350 million total transactions with 31 million transactions from QRIS, and mobilized more than 400 thousand MSMEs in Indonesia.

According to the projection of AFTECH 2021 report, digital payments have reached the highest level of maturity compared to services fintech other. This is also triggered by the soaring use of digital wallet applications where the trend is cashless economy is expected to continue.

"Indonesia's digital payments have developed great partnerships with companies E-commerce, ride hailing, banks and other relevant stakeholders in Indonesia, as well as developing a solid customer base with high customer acquisition," the report said.

If you look at the projections above, it can be said that the next stage for digital payment platforms is to strengthen their position by winning markets in areas that are still not yet covered by financial access. The expansion of the service ecosystem is still the key to increasing financial access to the public.