In November 2012, Express went public on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (thus becoming Indonesia's first publicly traded cab service) by selling 49 percent of its equity. It raised IDR 588.7 billion (about USD $60 million). Part of these proceeds were used to acquire Ekspres Mulia Kencana. Shares of Express have surged about 33 percent year-to-date. This year, Express targets a rise in revenue of about 30 percent and a rise in net profit of about 65 percent.

Express intends to rejuvenate and expand its taxi fleet size in the years ahead:

     2009    2010    2011    2012    2013¹    2015¹
Taxi Fleet Size
   3,198    4,922    6,002    8,035   10,000   15,000

¹ indicates a prognosis
Source: Express Group

There are dozens of (mostly smaller) taxi companies active in Indonesia, but two stand out as market leaders: Blue Bird Group and Express Transindo Utama. Last week, Blue Bird announced to become a publicly listed company in the middle of this year.

Bahas