Editor’s note: updated with Grab’s confirmation & Ovo’s comments

Singapore-headquartered Grab Holdings is increasing its ownership of the Indonesian mobile wallet provider Ovo to about 90 percent by acquiring stakes from PT Tokopedia and Lippo Group, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Grab, which offers ride-hailing, food delivery, and FinTech services, increased its holding in Ovo’s parent company PT Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa from about 39 percent, according to a filing with the ministry of legal affairs.

“We are pleased to complete the first part of a wider exercise to restructure our ownership,” Ovo said in a statement. “We welcome a greater commitment from Grab in Ovo. We’re working in close consultation with the regulators to complete the ownership restructuring process, and are confident this will allow us to better serve the financial services needs of Indonesians,” the company was quoted as saying.

Grab plans to go public via a merger with Altimeter Growth Corp by the end of this year. Grab is said to be in the process of selling a slice of its Ovo stake to Indonesian investors to comply with the country’s regulations, according to the newswire, quoting a person with knowledge of the matter.

Tokopedia is finalizing its merger with Gojek, a ride-hailing company rivalling Grab. The combined internet giant GoTo held a stake in Ovo alongside Grab.

GoTo said in a statement that the transaction has been planned for some time and will allow it to continue to focus on further deepening the market-leading strategy of GoPay and the broader GoTo Financial ecosystem, the newswire reported.

Ovo has yet to respond to TechNode Global‘s query at press time.

When contacted, Grab confirmed through its communications team that it has acquired a greater stake in OVO, without elaborating.

Ovo told TechNode Global that the company is working closely with the regulators to complete the ownership restructuring process.

“We are pleased to complete the first part of a wider exercise to restructure our ownership. We welcome a greater commitment from Grab in Ovo. We’re working in close consultation with the regulators to complete the ownership restructuring process, and are confident this will allow us to better serve the financial services needs of Indonesians,” a spokesperson said in an email.

Ovo is Indonesia’s largest mobile wallet with a 38 percent market share in the country, according to the 2021 Mobile Payments Report 2021 by Boku Inc.

Ovo said it is now available in 115 million devices with access to payments, transfers, cash-in/out, rewards, asset management, and investments. OVO is accepted in more than 300 cities across the Indonesian archipelago, according to the company’s Linkedin page.

According to earlier reports, Grab has invested in Ovo back in 2018.

Featured image credit: Ovo

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