Questioning J&T Express Extremely High Valuation Target

The local logistics company J&T Express (J&T) is making another headlines with plans to raise over $1 billion (more than Rp. 14.5 trillion) funding from Tencent and other investors with a pre-money valuation of $20 billion, citing The Information.

Previously, CB Insights said in April that J&T had acquired unicorn status with a valuation of $7.8 billion, through the funding worth more than $2 billion from a series of investors. The investors are PE China Hillhouse Capital, Boyu Capital, and Sequoia Capital China.

When local media asked for a response, J&T's CEO Robin Lo did not confirm nor deny the unicorn's status.

Referring to the CB Insight version of the valuation, it means that J&T's valuation has grown over two times within four months. DailySocial has published a piece questioning J&T's unicorn status.

Chairman of the Indonesian Logistics Association (ALI) Mahendra Rianto doubts this status, as compared to its closest competitor, JNE is also estimated to have become a unicorn.

Flexible valuation

Without putting aside the rumors above, the key word is that irrational valuations are something that is interesting to discuss.