Listed stock broker CTS Global Equity Group Inc. on Monday said it has forayed into the Indonesian Stock Market as part of its regional expansion plans.
In its disclosure, the company said it has made an initial fund disbursement to Bank Central Asia (BCA) Indonesia.
“The long-term goal for CTS is to derive 75 percent of its revenues from the global markets. We have world-class traders that are more than capable and now that we have capital in our arsenal, it’s time to expand into markets like Indonesia,” CTS Global CEO Lawrence Lee said.
The company said the expansion to the Indonesian market, which is more than eight times bigger than the Philippine market, is one of the strategies for CTS Global to reach its long-term target of getting more revenues from global trading. For the first quarter, 43 percent of total proprietary trading revenues of the company came from global markets.
This expansion allows CTS Global to benefit from the Philippines’s neighboring country’s growth prospects, the broker said.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange registers an average daily value traded of $1 billion, versus the Philippine Stock Exchange’s $150 million. The stock market of Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, is commodity-driven, and thus was able to thrive into the pandemic.
Indonesia is also the home of big technology companies such as GoTo, the merger between the country’s most valuable startups Gojek and Tokopedia. GoTo went public in April as one of Jakarta’s largest listings and the fifth largest initial public offering in the world this year.
GoTo’s listing was well received by the market as seen by its 23 percent increase on its first day of trading. This positive reception should fuel the Indonesian market through more technology company listings in the coming years, CTS said.
CTS Global debuted in the Philippine Stock Exchange last April at P1 share, raising P1.37 billion in gross proceeds mainly to fund its global trading operations and other purposes. The company has been active in the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong and the US equity markets.
This venture into Indonesia starts CTS’ expansion into more geographical locations, the company said.