Smartfren From The Sinar Mas Group Of Conglomerate Eka Tjipta Widjaja Reportedly Wants To Annex FUNDS, President Director Hasn't Wanted To Comment

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - There is news circulating about Smartfren which will acquire a financial technology startup (fintech) for FUND payments from Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek). Smartfren's management believes that the potential for the electronic money market is huge, but Smartfren's President Director Merza Fachys is reluctant to comment on the news and progress of the DANA acquisition.

"This is because there has been no official announcement from the shareholders," he said in a talk show entitled Unpacking the Smartfren Strategy in 2022, quoted by VOI, Tuesday, February 1.

However, Merza sees that the sector being worked on by DANA has potential. "We see that electronic money has utilization paths around it," he said.

Bank Indonesia (BI) noted that the value of transactions through electronic money reached Rp. 35.10 trillion as of December 2021. The figure increased by 58.6 percent compared to the same period the previous year.

Electronic money transactions at payment fintechs such as DANA and OVO have beaten banking since 2019. OVO's market share is 20 percent or beat Bank Mandiri in 2019. Meanwhile, DANA is the same as BCA, which is 10 percent.

Merza also said that the potential for electronic money could be synergized with Smartfren. This is because every corporate action involving startups such as DANA aims to strengthen the ecosystem.

"So, there must be a correlation when Smartfren takes DANA. We take the upstream, the downstream must be created," he said.

Moreover, Smartfren and DANA have intensively collaborated since last year. This telecommunications company launched a special starter pack integrated with the DANA application.

"Customers can also get cashless packages through the DANA application," said Deputy CEO of Smartfren Djoko Tata Ibrahim in a press release last year on September 26, 2021.

The Sinar Mas Group subsidiary was recently reported to be taking over the DANA from Emtek. This rumor has actually been circulating since last year.