GoTo Shares Plunge After Stock Exchange Removes Price Floor

GoTo Group's stock plunged 14% to 43 rupiah in early trading on Indonesia's stock exchange following the removal of a 50-rupiah price floor. The ride-hailing and food-delivery platform had been stuck at the minimum price of 50 rupiah, or less than one US cent, for approximately four months. The price floor, implemented over a decade ago to shield investors from sharp declines, is rare among major markets, which usually employ trading halts or circuit breakers to curb volatility.

Investors had complained that stocks at the minimum price floor could become virtually untradeable. The elimination of the price floor aligns with Indonesian regulators' efforts to enhance market liquidity, following MSCI's warning in January of a potential downgrade to frontier status due to investability concerns. As of now, over a hundred stocks in the Jakarta Composite Index, comprising over 900 members, are trading at or below the 50-rupiah level, according to exchange data.

Some shares may trade below the threshold if they are part of the full call auction, a mechanism that matches buy and sell orders at scheduled times. Once one of Indonesia's most valuable companies with a market capitalization exceeding US$32 billion shortly after its listing in April 2022, GoTo has struggled with heavy losses due to intense competition from well-capitalized rivals like Grab Holdings.

Despite a series of restructuring efforts and leadership changes resulting in its second consecutive quarterly profit in July, investor enthusiasm has not been reignited. MSCI delisted GoTo from its stock indexes in its latest quarterly review due to failure to meet liquidity requirements.