Indonesia's most famous celebrity, Raffi Ahmad, is taking his RANS Entertainment media business public in a Jakarta listing that could raise up to 429 billion rupiah, about 24 million US dollars, in a deal whose pre-IPO share register is studded with politically connected names.
The company, which will trade under the ticker RANS, is offering up to 2.52 billion new shares, equal to 20.02 percent of its enlarged capital, at a price range of 135 to 170 rupiah each, according to the preliminary prospectus published on Tuesday. Bookbuilding runs from June 23 to 25, with the listing on the Indonesia Stock Exchange targeted for July 10. Trimegah Sekuritas is the underwriter. RANS, classed in the consumer-cyclicals sector under entertainment and movie production, grew out of a YouTube channel founded in 2015 into a media, content, intellectual-property and lifestyle group.
A well-connected cap table
Raffi Ahmad controls 78.68 percent of the company before the offering, a stake that falls to 62.93 percent afterward. But the prospectus drew attention in Indonesia for who else appears on it.
Kaesang Pangarep, the youngest son of former president Joko Widodo and chairman of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), holds 1.14 percent. Dony Oskaria, the chief operating officer of sovereign wealth fund Danantara and head of the body that oversees state-owned enterprises, holds 3.42 percent. Raffi's wife, Nagita Slavina, who serves as RANS's president director, owns 1.24 percent, and Sutanto Hartono, a senior executive at media group Emtek, holds 1.43 percent.
The second-largest shareholder is PT Indonesia Entertainmen Grup with 9.04 percent, a content sub-holding of Surya Citra Media (SCMA), part of the Emtek conglomerate, giving RANS a heavyweight media backer. A subsidiary of football-club operator Bali United also holds a small stake.
The presence of a sitting state-enterprise official and a former president's son on the register of a celebrity company raising money from the public is the kind of disclosure that draws scrutiny in Indonesia, and it dominated local coverage of the prospectus. Raffi Ahmad himself straddles entertainment and government, having been named a special envoy to President Prabowo Subianto in 2024.
The business and the money
RANS plans to use the proceeds to repay part of its debt and fund a series of expansions, including building an amusement park called Cipungland, staging concerts, developing an artificial-intelligence business and acquiring a cosmetics unit. Raffi has committed not to relinquish control of the company for three years after the listing, except as required by law or a decision of the authorities.
The prospectus is also candid about the venture's central vulnerability. The business depends heavily on Raffi, Nagita and their family as its core talent, it says, and any reduction in their involvement, or a reputational issue affecting the family, could hurt its performance and finances. That concentration of value in a single household is unusual for a listed company and is the main risk investors are being asked to weigh.
A bold splash in a cold market
The timing is striking. Indonesia's IPO market has been subdued this year, with the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index down about 29 percent and foreign investors cautious. Against that backdrop, a celebrity-led offering with a high-profile share register stands out.
The deal is small in size, valuing RANS at roughly 1.7 trillion to 2.1 trillion rupiah, about 95 million to 120 million dollars, depending on where the price is set. Before the IPO, the company had 10.08 billion shares in issue, with public investors set to hold just over 20 percent once the new shares are sold.
For a company born on YouTube and built on the fame of one couple, the listing is a test of whether star power and a well-connected register can win over public investors at a nervy moment for the Jakarta market. The final price, and the debut on July 10, will show how much they are prepared to pay for it.
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