CTS Global expands to Indonesia

Pulicly-listed stock broker CTS Global Equity Group Inc. is venturing into Indonesia as part of its long-term strategy of getting more revenues from global trading.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said it will venture into the Indonesian Stock Market with an initial fund disbursement into Bank Central Asia (BCA) Indonesia.

For the first quarter of 2022, 43 percent of CTS’ total proprietary trading revenues came from global markets.

“The long-term goal for CTS is to derive 75 percent of its revenues from the global markets. We have worldclass traders that are more than capable and now that we have capital in our arsenal, it’s time to expand into markets like Indonesia.” said CTS Global Chief Executive Lawrence Lee.

This expansion allows CTS Global to benefit from Indonesia’s growth prospects. The country’s commodity-driven nature allowed its stock market to thrive despite the global meltdown.

The Indonesia Stock Exchange registers an average daily value traded of $1 billion, versus the PSE’s $0.15 billion.

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 recently went public in April 2022 as one of Jakarta’s largest listings and the fifth largest initial public offering in the world this year.

The company 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 Global debuted in the PSE last April 13, 2022 at ₱1.00 per share, raising ₱1.38 billion in gross proceeds mainly to fund its global trading operations and other purposes.

Historically, 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. (James A. Loyola)